PWHL breaks women's hockey attendance record again
A record crowd of 21,105 watched PWHL Toronto beat Montreal 3-2 in overtime at Bell Centre, home of the Montreal Canadiens, on Saturday.
Toronto star forward Sarah Nurse netted the game-winner just 13 seconds into the extra frame as the team became the first in the PWHL to clinch a playoff spot.
The two teams set the previous women's hockey attendance record Feb. 16 at the Toronto Maple Leafs' Scotiabank Arena, where 19,285 fans saw Toronto beat Montreal 3-0 in the "Battle on Bay Street."
Bell Centre hosted Canadian Women's Hockey League games in 2016 and 2017. The crowd for the 2016 contest was 5,938, which stood as the North American regular-season professional record for women's hockey until the PWHL commenced in January.
"In 2017 when we played here, it was surreal," Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin said before Saturday's game. "It was a dream that happened, and you jump out on that ice, you look up and see empty seats. But you hope that one day it will be packed.
"Being able to be in that historic moment here at the Bell Centre is going to be unbelievable. In terms of women's hockey being able to fill that ice is going to be surreal."
Multiple attendance records have fallen in the inaugural PWHL season. Ottawa and Minnesota broke marks for professional women's teams in the first week of the season before Toronto set the overall record in February.
Before the PWHL campaign, the record crowd for a women's hockey game was 18,013 at the 2013 World Championship in Ottawa.