The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) game between host Minnesota and Montreal on Saturday set an attendance record for the most-watched professional women’s ice hockey game with 13,316 people at Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minnesota, the league said.
Fans thronging Saturday’s game in Saint Paul saw Grace Zumwinkle claim another piece of PWHL history by scoring the league’s first hat-trick, as Minnesota blanked Montreal 3-0.
The record crowd, which came five days after the PWHL held its first game, easily outnumbered the 8,318 fans on Tuesday last week who watched the clash between Montreal and hosts Ottawa in the inaugural game for both clubs.
Photo: Matt Krohn-USA TODAY
“Living in the State of Hockey, I knew our fans would show up for us, but today they have taken it to a whole new level,” Minnesota General Manager and former US national team player Natalie Darwitz said. “I’ve enjoyed numerous amazing hockey experiences in Minnesota over my career, and experiencing today and the record crowd was emotional and ranks near the top of the list.”
The attendance figures capped a successful first week for the PWHL, which launched on Monday.
“What we proved this week is that women’s hockey works,” PWHL founding board member Stan Kasten said.
The six-franchise league featuring teams from Boston, Minnesota, Ottawa, Montreal, New York and Toronto is the latest attempt to launch professional women’s ice hockey in North America.
It is the successor to the National Women’s Hockey League, which was launched in 2015 and was the first professional women’s league to pay players.
The PWHL is the latest bid to create a sustainable business model around women’s hockey after previous leagues failed to deliver.
Prior to the PWHL season, the Swedish Women’s Hockey League’s championship game for the 2021-2022 season held the professional women’s ice hockey record with a crowd of 7,765.
The previous North American record for a regular-season professional women’s hockey game was 5,938, set during a 2016 game in the now-defunct Canadian Women’s Hockey League.
Additional reporting by AFP
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