Minnesota beats Boston 3-0, wins inaugural Walter Cup as Professional Women's Hockey League champs
CTV
Minnesota won the inaugural championship of the Professional Women’s Hockey League on Wednesday night, getting 17 saves from Nicole Hensley to beat Boston 3-0 in a winner-take-all Game 5 and claim the Walter Cup.
Kendall Coyne Schofield once showed off her speed racing against men in a skills competition at NHL All-Star weekend.
On Wednesday night, she sprinted into women's hockey history.
The three-time Olympian chased down a rolling puck and slapped it into an empty net to seal Minnesota's 3-0 victory over Boston in the winner-take-all Game 5 to claim the inaugural championship of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Liz Schepers scored to break a scoreless second-period tie, Michela Cava made it 2-0 midway through the third and Nicole Hensley stopped 17 shots for Minnesota. Coyne Schofield added the empty netter with two minutes left, and then the captain and oldest member of the roster took the first-ever lap on the ice with the Walter Cup.
“It makes me want to tear up thinking about it. She’s done so much for this sport,” said forward Taylor Heise. “She’s definitely one of the people that’s helped this sport grow and one of the reasons why this arena is sold out here tonight.”
Coyne Schofield, 32, was fresh off of winning the 2018 Olympic gold medal when she was invited to take part in a timed lap around the ice at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game. She finished seventh out of eight, but was a crowd favorite in an arena filled with chants of “U-S-A!”
“What was so important about that moment wasn’t the skate itself. It’s what happened after,” she said on the ice while her teammates posed for pictures with the trophy and and her husband stood nearby holding the son she gave birth to less than a year ago.
