London, Ont.-area players on the newly launched Professional Women's Hockey League are revelling in the success of the first games and what it will mean for future athletes.
The highly anticipated league is made up of 150 players on three Canadian and three American teams. The first goal in the inaugural game on New Year's Day was scored by Ella Shelton of Ingersoll, Ont, who is playing for New York.
Brittany Howard from St. Thomas was also on the ice for that game playing as a forward for the opposing PWHL Toronto team. Both Howard and Shelton are former London Devilette players.
The experience was "surreal," Howard said Tuesday, both for the historic nature of the game itself, and for its location: the former Maple Leaf Gardens building, home to the Toronto Maple Leafs for nearly 70 years that's now called the Mattamy Athletic Centre. "Packed barn at the old Maple Leaf Gardens.