The Professional Women's Hockey League officially got underway yesterday, as N.Y. beat Toronto 4-0 in the inaugural PWHL game "in front of a sellout crowd" of 2,537 at Mattamy Athletic Centre in Toronto. Tennis great and PWHL board member Billie Jean King "performed the ceremonial puck drop" alongside PWHL SVP/Hockey Operations Jayna Hefford (AP, 1/1). The game "marked the launch of a league with ambitious plans to do for ice hockey what" the WNBA and NWSL "did for their sports." There was "a buzz and air of history" in the arena, and the "importance of the moment was underscored by the presence" of King (REUTERS, 1/1).
Yesterday's game "truly wasn’t about the result," but instead about the "on-ice product, the fact that a best-on-best women’s pro league is finally here." Lines for Toronto and PWHL gear "rounded corners, and by the second intermission, only a handful of jerseys remained" (SPORTSNET.ca, 1/1). THE ATHLETIC looks at how the PWHL was "made in six months" (1/2).
