1st PWHL game on New Year's Day reaches 2.9 million viewers

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.

Minnesota will host Montreal on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. You can watch the game on CBC Gem, cbcsports.ca, the CBC Sports app for iOS and Android devices, and CBC TV.

The full schedule of PWHL games airing on CBC Sports this season is available here.

WATCH | New York blanks Toronto in inaugural game: