LOWELL — Amid all of the hoopla immediately following the PWHL’s successful maiden voyage in women’s pro hockey, with record-breaking attendance, there was one particular reaction in Lowell which fans had while Minnesota players collected their championship hardware.
The boos.
Yes, there were boos during this historic night, with Billie Jean King in attendance in the winner-take-all game in the best-of-five series won by Minnesota, 3-0, over Boston at the Tsongas Center on May 29.
Boston fans were, well, not happy.
Where we come from, that means something.
The fans not only cheered the sport, but the 6,309 fans in attendance cared about their Boston team.
The boos echoed loud not because Minnesota had just won, but over the decision to name Minnesota forward Taylor Heise as the playoffs’ most valuable player.
The sold-out crowd was dialed in, chanting their standout goaltender’s name “Aerin Frankel” as Heise received the MVP trophy. Frankel stood on her head all playoffs, made 41 saves in the loss and was the reason it was only a one-goal game heading into the third period.
These were no longer just people attending games on a random night of the week. They were diehard fans there to root their team to victory and voice their distaste when their goaltender was snubbed an honor they felt she deserved.
The Boston crowd wasn’t complacent about losing. Isn’t that what true Boston fans are all about?
The boos subsided as they witnessed Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield – an advocate for the PWHL’s creation – become the first person to hoist the 35-pound Walter Cup, and stood on their feet throughout that historic moment for women’s sports.
Game 5 of the PWHL Finals sold out in 10 minutes. The ones lucky enough to attend the historic night for women’s ice hockey packed the seating bowl and crowded the concourse with standing-room only tickets.
Boston jerseys and every shade of green colored the Tsongas Center. Young girls lined the glass during warm-ups holding signs for their favorite players, not just signs dedicated to the specific teams.
An hour after Minnesota won and the players began to leave the ice for their locker room celebration, Boston fans were still in the stands waiting for autographs from the PWHL champions.
A young girl, donning her green Boston jersey, held a sign that said it all as those champions made their way off. It read, “This season meant everything to me.”
In that moment, it was clear the impact this season has had on the growth of women’s professional hockey. What year one and the inception of the PWHL meant were not lost on either team.
“At the end of it, you’re just a human showing up to play the sport that you love,” Boston captain and forward Hilary Knight said as she reflected on the season after her team lost. “When you get out on the ice with the group, you see the young face faces from all over, you see signs, candy, bracelets ...You realize how much you’re a part of something bigger than yourself.”
The season saw record attendance in the six-team league built from the ground up – and so fast that the teams didn’t even have logos, nicknames or mascots.
The PWHL only took its first steps after a years-in-the-making collective bargaining agreement was reach in July with the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association for fair wages. In August, the league announced the six markets for the Original Six teams – Boston, Minnesota, Toronto, Montreal, New York and Ottawa. The first draft occurred in September and the 24-game schedule for each team didn’t begin until January.
It’s been a whirlwind of less than a year to create the league and crown its first champion which culminated with a winner-take-all, sold-out affair in Lowell which rocked the house. Crowds were as high as 13,000 people at points this season as the teams played in some NHL arenas.
“You see sell outs all around the league, people getting excited for our sport,” Minnesota forward Liz Schepers, who scored the game-winning goal, said. “It’s a great moment and it’s only going to continue to get better. We’ve proven that the quality of play is the best in the world.”
That doesn’t mean everything went smoothly and that’s OK.
For Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley, she said there was a learning curve as the players had to navigate the new league. Hensley said there were a lot of first for everyone, from travel arrangements to best-of-five playoff formats, to simply “how do we do this?”
“I’ve been lucky to be playing hockey for a while, but to have a pro season like this where that’s what you get to do every single day, show up to the rink around a great group of people, it was awesome,” Minnesota defender Lee Stecklein said. “It’s some great hockey and everything we wanted to see the way the world has responded to our game.”
At the end of the day, the biggest first was winning the inaugural Walter Cup.
“We were the first ones to touch it (Walter Cup),” Hensley said. “Nobody can take that away from us.”
The PWHL has touted a “if you can see it, you can be it” motto. Women’s hockey has grown over the last few decades, and the idea of a professional league and teams isn’t new, but this league has breathed fresh air into another surge to grow the sport with females of all ages. There were women who played college hockey long before the US. Olympic Team won gold in 1998 that showed up to these games. and of course, there were the young girls in the crowd who the professional players saw inspired by the game.
“That’s something we’re really proud of,” Hensley said. “It’s about continuing to grow the game and give them something to be when they grow up. To have those opportunities to be role models for them means a lot to us.”
This summer promises logos and nicknames for the six teams, but the draft is up first.
There were 167 players who declared their eligibility for the second PWHL draft on June 10. Only 42 players will be selected by the six teams. Heise was the first overall draft last year.
The PWHL players hope the league will continue to increase visibility not only to young girls deciding to lace up the skates for the first time, but for those already playing at high levels and to know there’s a place for them to sustain a professional career after college or their national teams.
“It’s about being visible and hopefully providing that example for girls and even for older girls who are in college,” Stecklein said. “To have something this successful, I hope it encourages them to keep going and know they have something really reliable and sustainable that they’ll be able to keep getting better at hockey because that’s what we all want.”
The future is bright for women’s professional hockey.
“This year was a historic year, it was tough, it was something no player was used to, but we built it,” Knight said. “We’re extremely ecstatic about where it is right now (after) year one.”
