Country crooner/former American Idol Carrie Underwood and her fiancé, Ottawa Senators center Mike Fisher, were introduced by a mutual friend at a concert in 2008, and Underwood initially had qualms about dating a hockey player. As she told Ellen DeGeneres: “We had a friend, one of my band members was trying to hook us up... He was like, ‘I have this guy for you,’ I was like, ‘Oh, that’s great. What does he do?’ ‘He plays hockey.’" Underwood was also hesitant to enter a long-distance relationship. “I love Canada, but that is a long-distance relationship,” she said, “We see each other more than people think we see each other." Distance certainly didn't put a dent in this relationship, as the couple is set to tie the knot this summer.
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Actress and singer Hilary Duff and Edmonton Oilers center Mike Comrie met in 2007 on a plane ride to an Idaho resort, a chance encounter that Comrie says was "maybe a bit of a fluke—[Hilary] calls it ironic." Since then, Duff has become a supportive fan and a fixture at Comrie's games. In 2010, the pair became very publicly engaged—the photos of Mike popping the question floated around online shortly after the fact.
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After a fizzled romance with Dallas Stars center Sean Avery, actress Elisha Cuthbert began dating Toronto Maple Leafs defenseman Dion Phaneuf in 2008, leading a jealous Avery to tell the press, “It's become like a common thing in the NHL for guys to fall in love with my sloppy seconds.” Shortly thereafter, Avery was suspended by the NHL, while Cuthbert and Phaneuf have quietly kept dating ever since.
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After four years of on-and-off dating, pop singer and Playboy model Willa Ford and Dallas Stars center Mike Modano got married in a 75-guest wedding ceremony. Modano is “calm, cool, collected, and very focused. He grounds me,” Ford told People magazine. “I'm really one of those old-fashioned Southern girls who wants to get married, have a little time as newlyweds and then have babies.” Ford told ESPN mutual friends set the two lovebirds up at a charity event, although Modano jokingly claims she found him on the Internet.
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Perhaps an entry into the 2014 Winter Olympics Pairs Figure Skating contest is in the future for gold medalist Kristi Yamaguchi and two-time Olympian Bret Hedican, who has since retired from hockey. The two met in 1995 at a gala celebrating the opening of Vancouver’s new ice hockey arena. “He was clean-cut and soft-spoken,” Yamaguchi told People magazine. “Figure skaters have awful perceptions of hockey players, and I thought, ‘This guy’s a little different.'”
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Not much is known about the relationship between tennis star Elena Dementieva and Atlanta Thrashers right wing Maxim Afinogenov, other than they both share Russian heritage. Dementieva refuses to talk about her private life, although she does admit she is currently in a love affair with her home city.
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In 1993, former New York Rangers hockey player Ron Duguay married Kim Alexis, who can’t stop gushing about her man: “My husband has the qualities from Galatians 5:22; kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control, and faithfulness. He also has a real love for children and strives for the truth in all situations.” The supermodel has also gone beyond the camera and taken on her husband’s hockey passion as a pastime. They are still happily married and living in California proving couples that play together, stay together.
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Like Kim Alexis, Carol Alt pioneered the supermodel-hockey player connection. She was married to former New York Ranger Ron Greschner for 13 years, but her heart now belongs to longtime boyfriend Alexei Yashin, center for Russian hockey team SKA Saint Petersburg. “People wouldn’t look at Alexei and think that he is a funny guy because he is so dedicated to his sport, and he’s so serious all the time,” Alt told ESPN of her boyfriend, who is 13 years younger. “But with me, he is hysterical. He makes me laugh all the time! He is so cute; he says the funniest things.”
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For a combination of surf and snow, Baywatch star Gena Lee Nolin and former NHL player Cale Hulse were married in 2004, and have since had two children together.
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Janet Jones met the Great One 1984 when Wayne Gretzky was a judge on Dance Fever, although the relationship didn’t get going until they met again in 1987 at a Los Angeles Lakers game. On Howard Stern’s show, Gretzky admitted that they consummated their relationship that night. The next year they were married, and they currently have five children.
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Russian right wing Valeri Bure learned English from watching Full House, so marrying the actress who played DJ Tanner must have been the ultimate fantasy come true. According to an interview with Christian Women Online, Candace Cameron said Dave Coulier, aka Uncle Joey, introduced the pair at a hockey game. She gave him her phone number, and the rest is history: They married in 1996. Bure retired in 2004 after playing for the Dallas Stars, the St. Louis Blues, and the Montreal Canadiens, and the couple has three children.
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