Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons
BY ZELLIE CALAVITA ’26
STAFF WRITER
Only a month into the first-ever season of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, 24 of the league’s top players opened the National Hockey League All-Star Weekend in Toronto. The players showcased their skills in front of over 16,000 fans in a 20-minute 3-on-3 match on Thursday, Feb. 1.
The two teams that played on Feb. 1 were named after PWHL advisory board members Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss and featured members from each of the six new PWHL teams: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Minnesota, New York and Boston.
Ottawa’s Savannah Harmon contributed five points by scoring a hat trick and two assists to help Team King secure a 5-3 win over Team Kloss. Toronto’s Blayre Turnbull, Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Boston’s Alina Müller gave two assists, while Minnesota's Kendall Coyne Schofield and New York’s Ella Shelton both scored a goal for Team King. For Team Kloss, New York’s Alex Carpenter had a goal and an assist, and Toronto’s Jocelyn Larocque and Ottawa’s Brianne Jenner each scored a goal, the NHL reported.
Women’s professional hockey has been participating in on-ice events at the NHL All-Star Weekend since 2019, with players from the U.S. and Canadian national teams competing in skills competitions and scrimmages. However, this year was the first time they represented their own professional league. “The NHL has a massive platform and we’re right in the hockey hotbed,” Toronto’s Renata Fast said in an interview with The Globe and Mail. “There couldn’t be a better time for it, given how successful our launch has been.”
The PWHL, which was only just established this past summer, succeeded the Premier Hockey Federation after it was purchased by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, who intended to create a more unified women’s hockey league, ESPN reported. They hosted a 15-round draft in September to determine the 23-spot roster of each team and held a five-day-long evaluation camp in December with scrimmages to help players get acclimated to the league’s rules and prepare for the season.
The Canadian Broadcasting Company reported that on New Year’s Day, nearly 3 million Canadians tuned in to watch the league’s first game as New York beat Toronto 4-0 in front of a sellout crowd of 2,537. Since then, teams have played 24 games, with a crowd-high of 13,316 at Xcel Center in Minnesota. However, it is predicted that the record will be broken on Feb. 16 when Toronto takes on Montreal at Scotia Bank Arena, as the venue seats 18,800 fans and the game is already sold out, according to The Hockey News.
The season will last until May and will be followed by a postseason tournament featuring two semi-finals and a finals match in a best-out-of-5 series. Every PWHL game is available to watch for free on the organization’s YouTube channel.