Walter Cup championship caps record-breaking 1st PWHL season — and years of work by players
CBC
Joy flooded Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield's face as she lifted the 35-pound Walter Cup above her head on Thursday night, after her team defeated Boston 3-0 to win the Professional Women's Hockey League's first championship.
It was the culmination of not just a season of hockey, but years of work to create a sustainable league where women would be treated as professionals.
It was Coyne Schofield who led a group of players in negotiating a landmark collective bargaining agreement with the PWHL's owners last summer, securing benefits like maternity leave and a housing stipend.
She was one of the leaders who rallied players together five years ago to push for more. With the help of sporting icons Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss, they found investors in Mark and Kimbra Walter, who own the six-team league.
"The only reason this [league] happened from a player's sense is Kendall," Minnesota's Kelly Pannek said, after watching her captain be the first to hoist the new trophy.
WATCH | Recapping the Walter Cup playoffs on Hockey North:
In between the labour agreement and the crowning of the first Walter Cup champion, the PWHL broke attendance records, sold merchandise faster than they could keep it in stock and racked up a long list of corporate sponsors.
Each team competed in a 24-game regular season and for the teams that went the distance, two best-of-five playoff series. Many games were physical and more than half were decided by one goal.
"I know the effort that every single player in this league put forth because it was a grind," Boston head coach Courtney Kessel said after her team's loss on Wednesday. "It's something no one's used to."
It all started on New Year's Day when New York defender Ella Shelton fired a puck past Toronto goaltender Kristen Campbell to score the first goal in PWHL history.
That was the league's first game, played in front of the first of 11 sell-out crowds of more than 2,400 at Mattamy Athletic Centre in downtown Toronto.
But bigger crowds kept showing up to watch the PWHL.
More than 8,300 people filled TD Place in Ottawa a day later, setting a North American record for the largest crowd to watch a professional women's hockey league game.
The record didn't stand long. More than 13,000 people showed up for Minnesota's home opener on Jan. 6 at the Xcel Energy Center.
Raphaëlle Tousignant has spent her life beating the odds, first as a survivor of childhood bone cancer and later as a trailblazing Para hockey player.
Sarah Fillier spent her first two seasons with the New York Sirens accustomed to staring at empty blocks of seats across the bench during home games.
Canadian Paralympic Committee CEO Karen O'Neill acknowledges the team’s showing at the Milano-Cortina Winter Games wasn't the same as past years.
Canadian Para alpine skier Kalle Eriksson and guide Sierra Smith capped their memorable Paralympic debut with bronze in the men's visually impaired slalom on Sunday at the Milano-Cortina Games.
Canadian skip Kerri Einarson looked up Saturday and saw real people, instead of cardboard cut-outs, in the stands at Calgary's WinSport Event Centre. She heard the roar of the crowd instead of the sound of flushing toilets piercing the silence.
Aaron Judge doubled and Pete Crow-Armstrong and Brice Turang each had two hits as the United States beat Canada 5-3 on Friday night in Houston to reach the World Baseball Classic semifinals.
Canada's Natalie Wilkie captured her second biathlon gold of the Milano-Cortina Paralympics on Friday, winning the women's standing sprint pursuit for her fourth medal in as many events.
Canada made wheelchair curling history on Thursday as the first team at any Paralympics to complete round-robin play without a loss.
The winningest men's ski cross racer in history added to his total on Thursday.
Canada's Mark Arendz collected his 14th career Paralympic medal while teammate Brittany Hudak earned her fourth in Wednesday's standing cross-country skiing races at Milano Cortina.
Alphonso Davies covered his face with his shirt as he left the field with an injury in Bayern Munich's game against Atalanta in the Champions League on Tuesday in Bergamo, Italy, raising questions about the Canadian star's availability for the World Cup.
Canadian Para nordic skiing star Natalie Wilkie has now won a medal of every colour at the Milano-Cortina Paralympics, adding bronze in the women's standing sprint classic on Tuesday in Val di Fiemme.