The Professional Women's Hockey League says its first game reached 2.9 million viewers. The figure represents the combined number of viewers that saw a potion of the game's coverage, including pre-game content, through the league's three Canadian national broadcast partners.
New York's 4-0 win over host Toronto on Jan. 1 was shown on CBC, Sportsnet and TSN. The league said in a statement Friday that the game had a combined average audience of 879,000 viewers.
Ella Shelton scored the historic opening goal, Corinne Schroeder earned the first-ever shutout in front of a sellout crowd of 2,537 at Toronto's Mattamy Athletic Centre.
Tennis legend and PWHL board member, Billie Jean King performed the ceremonial puck drop alongside PWHL senior vice-president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford.