New York defender Ella Shelton wound up from behind the circle, sending a puck flying previous a number of our bodies in entrance of the web, by means of the 5 gap previous Toronto goaltender Kristen Campbell, and straight into the historical past books.
Ingersoll, Ont.’s Shelton scored the first objective within the first Skilled Girls’s Hockey League sport, en path to shutting out Toronto 4-0 on Monday afternoon.
When New York chosen her with the crew’s first-round draft choose (4th total) in September, a part of the crew’s plan to construct from the blue line out, 25-year-old Shelton was requested what the youthful model of herself would consider that second.
WATCH l Shelton of Ingersoll, Ont., scores league’s 1st-ever objective:
The Canadian, picked fourth total by New York within the 2023 PWHL Draft, will go down in historical past because the league’s first objective scorer.
“Ten-year-old Ella didn’t know that ladies might play hockey,” Shelton mentioned. Rising up in a small city, she all the time performed with boys.
On New 12 months’s Day, taking part in in entrance of a sold-out crowd of two,537 individuals on the previous Maple Leaf Gardens (now Mattamy Athletic Centre), Shelton’s objective marked the beginning of a brand new period in skilled girls’s hockey.
Within the course of, she created a second that younger women in these stands will bear in mind for the remainder of their lives, and provided a glimpse of what may very well be attainable for the subsequent 10-year-old lady dreaming hockey desires.
“I believe the feelings are simply surreal proper now,” Shelton advised CBC’s Anastasia Bucsis in the course of the first intermission.”This crowd and coming to play your first skilled hockey sport in 2024, it’s fairly the bang to start out off the 12 months.”
New York goaltender Corinne Schroeder saved all 29 photographs that got here her manner within the win, incomes a shutout and first-star honours, whereas Alex Carpenter, Jill Saulnier and Kayla Vespa had the crew’s different targets.
WATCH l Canadian goaltender Schroeder makes 29 saves in New York’s win:
The Canadian goaltender made 29 saves in New York’s 4-0 win in Toronto.
Toronto didn’t capitalize on greater than a minute of 5-on-3 time within the third interval, and finally couldn’t resolve Schroeder over three durations. New York got here out wanting quicker and extra linked.
“We’ve a particular group in there,” Shelton mentioned. “We’ve numerous enjoyable collectively. We work arduous and we come decided to place our greatest foot ahead and be a profitable crew this 12 months.”
Campbell made 24 saves for Toronto within the loss.
A brand new starting
Earlier than the sport, PWHL investor, tennis legend and equality advocate Billie Jean King learn out the beginning lineup inside Toronto’s dressing room: Sarah Nurse, captain Blayre Turnbull, Samantha Cogan, Jocelyne Larocque, Renata Quick and Campbell, the goalie her teammates name “Soup.”
“Good luck, and this can be a day to cherish for the remainder of your lives,” King advised the crew.
When it got here time for GM Gina Kingsbury to deal with her squad, she felt uncharacteristically speechless.
It’s a second she’s dreamed about for years, too, having performed in leagues that didn’t pay, inside group rinks with workers who had been volunteers, taking part in with girls who labored lengthy days at second jobs to come back to the rink late at evening and play a sport they beloved.
“We’re there with the athletes on the ice at the moment,” Kingsbury advised CBC’s Andi Petrillo.
“I believe we’re all so excited that we’re lastly right here and that there’s an expert league for these athletes to play in, and that the door of the gate is extensive open for the subsequent technology of athletes to stroll proper in and be an expert athlete.”
WATCH l How we acquired right here: The journey to the creation of the PWHL:
CBC Sports activities’ Andi Petrillo chronicles the lengthy highway to a sustainable skilled girls’s hockey league, from the collapse of the CWHL to first puck drop within the PWHL.
As excited as she was for the gamers, Kingsbury mentioned she was additionally thrilled for the crew’s workers to get the chance to do their jobs in an expert setting.
“For me to be a GM and simply discuss hockey and to plan and construct a crew is a dream come true,” Kingsbury mentioned. “It’s fairly arduous to place into phrases what it means. It’s not simply the athletes. It’s everybody concerned.”
‘They hold pinching themselves’
Throughout the pre-game ceremony, each member of Toronto’s crew, together with reserve gamers, heard their title and hometown introduced as they skated on to the ice.
There have been rookies like Emma Maltais and Maggie Connors, who get to start out their careers with the form of sources girls earlier than them might solely have dreamed about.
There was Nurse, who spent numerous hours as a part of the participant committee that negotiated the eight-year collective bargaining settlement that secured gamers advantages like maternity go away and a housing stipend. It enshrined issues that sound primary, like pre- and post-game meals, however haven’t all the time been assured for girls who performed skilled hockey.
There have been Jess Jones and Erica Howe, who spent years making nearly nothing within the Canadian Girls’s Hockey League (CWHL), and who’ve put different careers on maintain to be a part of this new league. They aren’t on their nation’s nationwide crew, however they’ve stored taking part in by means of a folded league and a pandemic, perhaps questioning whether or not they’d get an opportunity to be part of this.
There was Vespa, who was about to attain her first skilled league objective in entrance of a hometown crowd, after spending final hockey season balancing hockey with a job as a snowplow operator with the Metropolis of Hamilton.
Shortly after, King took the arm of Jayna Hefford, the Hockey Corridor of Famer who serves because the PWHL’s senior vp of hockey operations, and so they walked to centre ice, waving to the gang. King kissed the puck earlier than dropping it between New York captain Micah Zandee-Hart and Turnbull.
WATCH | Billie Jean King drops ceremonial opening puck for 1st PWHL sport:
King unofficially kicked off the league’s debut sport between Toronto and New York with the long-time hockey custom.
It was nearly 5 years in the past when King and her spouse, Ilana Kloss, answered the cellphone at a Los Angeles Lakers sport. After they discovered a quiet spot to speak, they heard Minnesota ahead Kendall Coyne Schofield on the opposite finish of the road, asking for his or her assist.
King and Kloss turned advisors to the gamers’ affiliation that Coyne Schofield and different gamers spearheaded, and finally satisfied Los Angeles Dodgers proprietor Mark Walter to take a position what’s now the PWHL. Each King and Kloss sit on the league’s advisory board.
However the creation of the PWHL is a narrative that spans greater than 5 years. It weaves by means of extra generations than the ladies who acquired to play on Monday. Males have had the NHL for greater than 100 years, whereas girls have been ready for the same alternative, King advised Petrillo earlier than the sport.
“The ladies are so excited,” King mentioned. “They hold pinching themselves. I don’t suppose individuals understand the craving that’s gone on for generations for this.”
Rematch set for Friday
For the final 5 years, feminine hockey gamers have spent numerous time speaking about inequity, about league constructing, and a few supposed “rift” between the gamers who sat out and people who performed within the defunct Premier Hockey Federation.
Now, they’re all collectively in a single league and so they get to speak about taking part in hockey, with Monday’s sport the primary of 72 throughout the PWHL this season.
Subsequent up is Montreal at Ottawa, the place an anticipated crowd of greater than 7,800 ought to break a file for the most-attended skilled girls’s hockey sport in North America.
For Toronto and New York, the budding rivalry resumes on Friday when Toronto travels to Connecticut for New York’s house opener.
The remaining 17 PWHL video games on CBC Sports activities’ schedule will all happen on Saturdays, persevering with Jan. 6 when Montreal visits Minnesota at 3.30 p.m. ET.
The complete schedule is on the market right here.
WATCH CBC Sports activities’ Andi Petrillo speaks to ports equality icon Billie Jean King:
The tennis and sports activities equality icon spoke to CBC’s Andi Petrillo concerning the journey and significance of the PWHL.
Click on under for full crew previews for every of the PWHL’s six franchises.