The 2007-08 hockey season promises to be a year of firsts for the Mon Valley Thunder.

A Class A minor league team based out of Rostraver Ice Garden, the Thunder will begin its first season Nov. 2 in the first-year, five-team Mid-Atlantic Hockey League with a home game against Wooster (Ohio).

There's a strong possibility that Mon Valley's opening-night roster will include the first female goaltender in pro hockey in 10 years.

Kira Hurley, a mainstay on the NCAA Division I Clarkson University women's hockey team last season, signed with the Thunder last month after doing well at a team tryout camp. She had a 2.26 goals-against average and a .901 save percentage during her senior year at Clarkson, a school located in Potsdam, N.Y.

MAHL commissioner Jim Riggs and Thunder coach Brian Cersosimo both said Hurley's signing was in no way "a publicity stunt."

"She's just a tremendous athlete. The athleticism is there. The goaltending skill is there," said Cersosimo. "She's 6 feet. She has the perfect size for a goaltender. She can handle the traffic and the bumping in front of the net.

"If you watched our tryouts from the stands and someone didn't tell you she was a female goaltender, you wouldn't have had any idea. She's quick, good on her skates."

There were eight goaltenders at Mon Valley's tryout that Hurley attended and the Thunder signed two -- Hurley, who is from Pickering, Ontario, and Kevin Rainey from Toronto, Ontario. Mon Valley's preseason training camp begins Oct. 25.

Hurley said her goal is "to be the best I can be. I'm not aspiring to get into the NHL, but if I could move up a level that would be good."

According to Riggs, who has spent a couple of decades in minor league hockey, Hurley would be the first female goaltender in pro hockey since Manon Rheaume (1992-97), who played as a backup at the AA and AAA levels, including stints with the Atlanta Knights and Las Vegas Thunder. Rheaume was from Beauport, Quebec.

Erin Whitten, from Glen Falls, N.Y., played in 17 games over four years (1993-96) at the AA and AAA levels as a backup, playing for teams in Dallas and Utica (N.Y.).

"I never thought of the historical implications," said Cersosimo, who is the father of three girls (13, 11 and 7) and one boy (18). "Kira can play the game. She's a good hockey player. She happens to be female. So be it."

Hurley, 22, a recent college graduate, said she actually turned down a good job offer to play pro hockey for the Thunder at minor-league hockey's lowest level, where player salaries are expected to be about $300 a week.

"I live for hockey -- I live it, breathe it," said Hurley. "I wanted to play more hockey after college, but I didn't know where to go.

"My dad suggested the MAHL tryout. I was taking a shot in the dark. But I felt I wasn't finished yet. There was still more hockey in me.

"I'm not saying I'm going to play hockey for the next 20 years, but I want to do it now.

"I have to listen to my heart. It's not about the money. It's about being happy."