TikTok creators find romance through making NHL content

Amber Konerman and Romeo Torain are used to making entertaining hockey content on TikTok, but they recently created something even greater.

Torain, 20, and Konerman, 18, have developed an unlikely relationship as social-media creators and significant others despite living roughly 900 miles apart.
Torain and Konerman got friendly during the summer when the United States government considered shutting down TikTok. The creators developed a group chat to stay in touch, and Konerman and Torain began getting closer as they spoke.
"We just kind of found each other through there," Konerman told NHL.com. "Then I started following him, and I was like, 'This dude is really cool. He's been reposted by the NHL. He's into hockey. He plays hockey.'"
They announced their relationship
via TikTok
in September.

"Our friends started to take notice, and they were like, 'Are these two a thing now?'" Torain said. "That's when we had to break it out and tell everyone."
Torain is a hockey player from New York City in his second season playing junior for the Walpole Express of the Eastern Hockey League. He started

after his season was suspended in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic and has more than 20,000 followers.
"I just downloaded [TikTok] for fun; just to make funny videos and make funny content and hope for the best," Torain told NHL.com. "I was home, and there was nothing to do at home and I started to make TikToks and there was something to do on the side to keep me occupied.
"Here I am almost a year in doing TikToks, and it's pretty amazing. From time to time when I'm on the ice and playing other teams they've seen me on there and will try to get in my head about it."
Konerman is from Northern Kentucky and initially got turned onto hockey by attending games for Cincinnati of the ECHL. She became a St. Louis Blues fan first before switching to support the Chicago Blackhawks, and

is titled "Dylan Strome Fan Club."
Kentucky does not have a pro hockey team, but Konerman has found a community of fellow hockey supporters online.
"I realized that even if I don't have physical friends around me in my area that like hockey," Konerman said, "there's a big wide world of hockey fans on the internet."
Konerman attends Thomas More University in Crestview Hills, Kentucky and is studying communications and theater with a goal of working for an NHL team someday. She has been making hockey videos since June 2019 when her video titled

took off. It has been liked more than 17,000 times.

"It was the day I got my wisdom teeth out, and I decided the other videos I'm making aren't really doing much," Konerman said. "I was still kind of loopy from my wisdom teeth surgery, and I made an audio that was the 'I like Jack Hughes' audio and I thought, 'This is funny. No one is going to listen to it,' and the next day the numbers just going up and up and I thought, 'I'm making a lot of friends through this, why don't I just continue it?'"
Konerman watches as much of Torain's games as she can, and they bond over music and each other's lives aside from hockey. Despite the distance, and the resurgent pandemic, they are patiently looking forward to the day they can meet in person.
"We were shooting to do something around Christmas, but with new restrictions and varying from state to state it's been difficult," Konerman said.
"There's no rush for any of this," Torain said. "We're always going to be here for each other, and it's better to be safe than to risk it and somebody getting sick, and at this time the pandemic is skyrocketed again so to take time and plan it out a little more, it's actually a lifesaver."