It was a momentous event for 1000’s of Vancouverites on Wednesday, as a sold-out Rogers Area welcomed the Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League (PWHL) to town for the primary time.
The Toronto Sceptres battled the Montreal Victoire within the second recreation of the PWHL’s “Takeover Tour” of neutral-site video games. The Victoire emerged victorious with a 4-2 win.
The enthusiastic reception to skilled girls’s hockey could possibly be a constructive signal for Vancouver, with the league saying the takeover tour — which is travelling throughout the continent — is a take a look at of the place potential growth groups would possibly take root.
With all of the PWHL groups based mostly considerably east of Vancouver — the closest workforce can be Minnesota within the U.S. midwest — and far of B.C. not seeing professional women’s hockey for over a decade, these in attendance on Wednesday mentioned the joy was infectious.
“I assumed it was a great likelihood for the ladies to indicate that they will do precisely what males can do,” mentioned Ava McGinley, a junior hockey participant. “And it is simply tremendous enjoyable that we may have the expertise of enjoying up there in the future.”
McGinley and her teammate Naz Mansour each play with the Fraser Valley Rush U-18 AAA program. They mentioned professional hockey is one thing they’d probably prefer to attempt towards.
“Basically, if it is one thing you need to pursue, it is a chance now,” Mansour mentioned.
“And the ladies which might be at the moment enjoying within the league are paving the best way for us, for this chance.”
The Skilled Ladies’s Hockey League is making its first look in Vancouver Wednesday, because the Toronto Sceptres and the Montreal Victoire battle it out. Two forwards with the Fraser Valley Rush U-18 AAA program, Ava McGinley and Naz Mansour, spoke about their pleasure forward of the sport.
Each ladies joined an exuberant crowd of over 19,000 folks at Rogers Area, the house of the NHL’s Vancouver Canucks. Tickets to the sport had been offered out inside days of launch.
A CBC Information reporter in attendance mentioned the group was excited all through the night, and lots of spectators held up indicators begging for the league to return to Vancouver.
The PWHL saw great success in its first season in 2023-24, together with drawing the largest-ever crowd for a girls’s hockey recreation in Montreal.
Nonetheless, being in its infancy, the league acknowledged that basing all of its groups inside a couple of hundred miles — inside Central Canada, the U.S. midwest and East Coast — was to trim prices because the league discovered its footing.
Jayna Hefford, the league’s senior vice-president of hockey operations, mentioned the PWHL was thrilled with the response it acquired in Vancouver.
“We’re taking a look at if there’s a chance to be part of that market in some unspecified time in the future sooner or later, and Vancouver isn’t any totally different,” she instructed CBC Information. “Once more, an excellent hockey metropolis, someplace that I believe we see quite a lot of potential in.”
Boston defeats Montreal 3-2 in a shootout to halt their 3-game shedding skid. The sport was held in Seattle, Wash., at Local weather Pledge Area for the primary cease of the PWHL Takeover Tour.
Hefford acknowledged there can be challenges in basing an growth workforce on the West Coast, and distance and journey time can be one in all them.
“Nevertheless it’s not one which’s insurmountable or one which some other league hasn’t discovered an answer to,” she mentioned.
Victoire prevail
In entrance of an introduced crowd of 19,038 followers, the Victoire (4-2-1-1) gained 4-2 over the PWHL’s cellar dwellers, the Sceptres (2-0-1-5).
Within the PWHL, three factors are awarded for a win in regulation, two for an time beyond regulation win and one for an time beyond regulation loss. The win over the Sceptres means the Victoire take the highest spot within the PWHL standings over the Minnesota Frost.
Mikyla Grant-Mentis, Marie-Philip Poulin and Claire Dalton scored to assist Montreal construct a 3-0 lead within the second interval.
However Toronto roared again to arrange an thrilling last body, with Daryl Watts scoring within the second interval and Jesse Compher within the third.
The Sceptres’ comeback bid got here up brief, although, and Poulin nabbed her second aim of the night time on an empty web after goalie Kristen Campbell was pulled in favour of an additional skater.
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