Longtime backup goalie shining as starter for U.S sled team heading into Buffalo tournament
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William Douglas has been writing The Color of Hockey blog since 2012. Douglas joined NHL.com in 2019 and writes about people of color in the sport. Today, as part of NHL.com’s celebration of Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month, he profiles Jen Lee, goalie for the U.S. National Sled Hockey Team that will compete in the 2025 World Para Ice Hockey Championship May 24-31 at LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo.
Jen Lee went from understudy to a starring role without missing a beat — or a puck.
Lee was the backup to U.S. National Sled Hockey Team goalie Steve Cash, who was regarded by many as the world’s best at his position, for almost a decade until his retirement in 2021 and enshrinement in the U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame in 2022.
Lee became the starter for the U.S. at the 2022 Paralympics in Beijing and quickly made a name for himself by not surrendering one goal in the four-game run to the gold medal. USA Hockey named Lee its Disabled Athlete of the Year for 2022 for his performance.
“Steve was showing me the ropes, learning the game, learning the concepts,” Lee said. “As a young goalie at the time, I didn’t know everything was connected to the mental, physical, spiritual all together. When it was my time, I just kind of honed all the things I learned from him.”
Lee looks to showcase those skills at the 2025 World Para Ice Hockey Championship that begins Saturday at LECOM Harborcenter in Buffalo. Being played in the U.S. for first time since 2015, the eight-team field includes the U.S., Canada, China, Czechia, Germany, Norway, Slovakia and South Korea.
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The top five finishers earn qualification spots for the Milano Cortina 2026 Paralympic Winter Games. The bottom three will compete at a Paralympic Winter Games qualification tournament later this year.
The U.S. has won gold medals in five Paralympic Winter Games (2022, 2018, 2014, 2010 2002,) and are six-time World Para Ice Hockey Championship gold medalists (2023, 2021, 2019, 2015, 2012, 2009), having lost to Canada 2-1 in Calgary last year. The U.S. is 14-1 this season and won championships at the IPH Cup in Ostrava, Czechia in October and the Para Hockey Cup in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, in December.
Lee said he’s excited about the U.S. hosting the tournament and the having the opportunity for the team to avenge last year’s defeat.
“Will there be pressure hosting at home for the first time in a long time? Of course,” he said. “We did lose last year as well to Canada in Calgary so there’s also pressure to definitely win that back, to be world champs. That’s what we practice and train for.”
David Hoff, who began starting Lee in more impactful games shortly after he became the national sled hockey team’s coach in 2018-19, said that the 38-year-old goalie will be vital to the team’s success in Buffalo.
“I think he’s grabbed opportunities really, really well and now he’s the guy as we go forward,” Hoff said. “I think he’s exceeded all expectations. Part of that isn’t just grabbing the opportunity of playing games, it’s the work he’s put in. He’s very athletic and he puts a lot of time into the fitness side of things to stay as youthful and athletic as he is, which is a credit to him.”
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Born in Taipei, Taiwan, and raised in San Francisco, Lee dreamed of being an elite competitive athlete growing up. He played basketball and ran track in high school. He played a little inline hockey, too, gravitating to the goal because “I really wasn’t a good skater.”
“I had friends who I played with say, ‘Hey you can try playing goalie because no one really played goalie,’” said Lee, who speaks fluid Mandarin. “I put on the gear, got in the net and I fell in love with it, the whole thing about stopping pucks.”
Lee took the same enthusiasm to the Army when he enlisted after high school in 2004, fueled by a sense of duty following the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. He said he proudly became a “G.I. Joe,” a soldier who did one combat tour in Iraq in 2006-07.
He was a staff sergeant stationed in Savannah, Georgia, when the motorcycle he was driving was hit by another vehicle on Interstate 95 North in Jacksonville, Florida in March 2009. Lee thought his dream of becoming an elite athlete was over after doctors amputated his left leg above the knee because of his injuries.
“The first things popped into my head was, ‘Can I even walk again, run again? Can I even continue to serve my country again?’” Lee said. “I mean I had no idea about the technology. You look at movies, and you’re always looking at wooden peg legs and thinking, ‘That’s going to probably be you for the rest of your life.’”
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Lee was transferred to Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, to help his body and mind recuperate. There, he connected with Operation Comfort, a nonprofit group that provided rehabilitative and therapeutic programs for wounded veterans at the medical center.
“I tried playing wheelchair basketball, volleyball, other adaptive sports,” Lee said. “When I heard about sled hockey, I was a little surprised because I didn’t even know you could play hockey as a disabled person. I immediately signed up for it and as soon as I went in for my first practice with other service members I definitely fell in love. It’s really the fastest sport there is compared to other therapy or adaptive sports.”
Lee began playing with the San Antonio Rampage sled hockey team in 2009 and worked his way onto the U.S. national program by 2010. He’s 41-1-0-2 (W-OTW-OTL-L) with a 0.65 goals-against average, .907 save percentage and 25 shutouts for the national team. In addition to three Paralympics gold medals, he has three world championship gold medals (2023, 2021, 2019 and 2012) and two silver medals (2024, 2013).
All the hardware and championships are meaningful, Lee said, but the Beijing Paralympic gold brought him to tears because he earned it as the team’s No. 1 goalie.
“It was the first time that I was able to help contribute or be able to be part of all that, to get on the ice,” he said. “I thought about my family, too. I came to the United States as an immigrant from Taiwan and, knowing their sacrifices and struggles from growing up, it wasn’t easy. And my dream of being an elite athlete, being G.I. Joe, a soldier.
“Just being able to accomplish all that, though the path was different, it was still a huge accomplishment,” he said. “I was just happy, and that’s the emotion that came out.”
