PWHL Minnesota smashes attendance world record and wins in shutout
Grace Zumwinkle scored a hat trick as Minnesota's Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) team earned a 3-0 shutout win over Montreal in front of more than 13,000 fans Saturday in the State of Hockey.
With an official attendance inside the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul of 13,316, the game didn't just set a new record for a professional women's hockey game, it blew the old record out of the water. The previous record was set five days earlier when 8,318 fans watched Tuesday's PWHL game between Ottawa and Montreal.
The previous worldwide record for a women's game was 7,765 for a game in Sweden.
Minnesota (2-0) got a shutout from goaltender Maddie Rooney while Zumwinkle scored once in the first period and then two more in the third period, the last on an empty net to complete the hat trick. Rooney made 24 saves in her first start of the season.
That first goal on home ice sure does feel good! pic.twitter.com/qWpDpNnaUK
— Minnesota Frost (@PWHL_Minnesota) January 6, 2024
Minnesota's starting lineup featured a top line of Taylor Heise centering forwards Denisa Krizova and Kenda Coyne Schofield, with Lee Stecklein and Maggie Flaherty as the top defensive pairing.
Heise and Stecklein played in college for the Minnesota Gophers, Flaherty and Rooney went to Minnesota-Duluth, and Krizova and Coyne Scholfield played at Northeastern University.
“Living in the State of Hockey, I knew our fans would show up for us, but today they have taken it to a whole new level,” said Minnesota GM Natalie Darwitz. “I feel tremendously proud and inspired by our fan support. On behalf of our team and our league, I want to thank the fans and everyone who has made this day possible. I’ve enjoyed numerous amazing hockey experiences in Minnesota over my career, and experiencing today and the record crowd was emotional and ranks near the top of the list.”
Up next: Minnesota vs. Toronto, Wednesday, Jan. 10 at 7 p.m. Ct.
Title: Bring Me The Sports co-owner, editor Email: joe@bringmethenews.com Twitter: @JoeBMTN Education: Southwest Minnesota State University Location: Minneapolis, Minnesota Expertise: All things Minnesota sports Nelson has covered Minnesota sports for two decades, starting his media career in sports radio. He worked at small market Minnesota stations in Marshall and St. Cloud before joining one of the nation's highest-rated sports stations, KFAN-FM 100.3 in the Twin Cities. There, he was the producer of the top-rated mid-morning sports show with Minnesota Vikings announcer Paul Allen. His radio experience helped blossom a career as a sports writer, joining Minneapolis-based Bring Me The News in 2011. Nelson and Adam Uren became co-owners of Bring Me The News in 2018 and have since more than tripled the site's traffic and launched Bring Me The Sports in cooperation with the Sports Illustrated/FanNation umbrella. Nelson has covered the Super Bowl and numerous training camps, NFL combines, the MLB All-Star Game and Minnesota playoff games, in addition to the day-to-day happenings on and off the field of play. Nelson also has extensive knowledge of non-sports subjects, including news and weather. He works closely with Bring Me The News meteorologist Sven Sundgaard to produce a bevy of weather and climate information for Minnesota readers. Nelson helped launch and manage the Bring Me The News Radio Network, which provided more than 50 radio stations around Minnesota with daily news, sports and weather reports from 2011-17.