New York (AFP) – A world record crowd of more than 13,000 fans turned out on Saturday to watch Minnesota defeat Montreal in the new North American women’s ice hockey league.
A total of 13,316 spectators — the largest ever attendance for a professional women’s ice hockey game anywhere in the world — packed the XCel Energy Center in Saint Paul to watch Minnesota’s 3-0 victory.
The attendance comfortably eclipsed the previous record of 8,318, set on Tuesday when Ottawa hosted Montreal.
Saturday’s attendance figures capped a successful first week for the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), which launched on Monday.
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“What we proved this week is that women’s hockey works,” PWHL founding board member Stan Kasten said Saturday.
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.
The PWHL 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.
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.
