Saturday, January 6^th was a historic day in the world of Women’s Ice Hockey. At the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota, where a world record group of 13,316 passionate humans from the State of Hockey piled in to witness to the home debut of PWHL Minnesota, captained by USA-Hockey Icon and tenured hockey broadcaster Kendall Coyne Schofield, against PWHL Montreal, captained by Canadian Hockey legend Marie Philip-Poulin. As noted by the commentary panel, the home team of PWHL Minnesota got off to a rocky start, likely due to having the largest home supporting audience in the history of women’s hockey behind them, but by the end of the period they found themselves up 1-0.

               The opening goal of the game was scored with a Sidney Crosby-esque back-hand from the redline by Grace Zumwinkle. Spoiler alert, the only other two goals scored in the game, both by PWHL Minnesota, were also scored by Zumwinkle. There were multiple players who put on great performances in this game, specifically Kelly Pannek and Susanna Tapani who both recorded multi-point nights by way of two assists. However, the play of Maddie Rooney in goal cannot be overlooked. Rooney was incredible in the early portion of the game before the team in front of her got their legs under them, and then continued to make several high-danger saves over the course of the game. Rooney finished the game having stopped 24 of 24 shots to record her first career professional shut-out. In fairness to PWHL Montreal goaltender, Ann-Renee Desbiens, the only two goals scored against her were an unbelievable backhander and a rocket from the point that hit at least one player through a screen.

               Overall, this was a huge game for the PWHL, but the biggest storyline to take away from it is clearly that the next generation of Women’s hockey stars isn’t coming…because it’s already here. Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle are making a very compelling argument on the ice that this is their time and their era, and I eagerly anticipate the impact it will have to inspire other young women around the PWHL, as well as the NCAA as the PWHL builds its own unique niche in the world of professional hockey.