Tenacious, Yes, but Forget the Lipstick

"My house is a testament. It's falling down around me," she jokes. Laundry piles up. Dinners are simple. "There's lots of rotisserie chicken and salad-in-a-bag."

Her children sleep or do homework along the way. All three -- two teenage sons and a preteen daughter -- are also committed to academics, she said, and do the work it takes to get A's in spite of hockey's considerable commitment.

How hockey became such a force in their family life is not quite clear. Her husband played pond hockey growing up, but she knew nothing about it the day she walked into the Gardens Ice House in Laurel with her sons, then ages 4 and 5. "That looks like fun," she recalls thinking. "We should let them try that."

Her sons, R.J., 16, and Kevin, 14, have played hockey ever since, and her daughter, Meghan, 12, started almost eight years ago. She and her husband, Peter, sometimes have to split travel duties, although it is easier this year, with both sons playing for DeMatha High School.

Thompson acknowledges it can be a violent game and recalls instances in heated games when one son or the other was down on the ice. She could barely stand to watch. "Is he up yet?" she has asked another parent before she looked. But her children love the game and have never considered giving it up.

A few nights ago, Thompson did some online research on pit bulls, wondering which of their traits were the same as those of a hockey mom. She read that they were tenacious but adaptable working dogs.

"I guess in a way that's what hockey moms do," she said. "You see your kid and you see something they are passionate about, and you just try to facilitate that."