Zumwinkle leads Minnesota past Montreal with hat trick in front of record PWHL crowd

Maddie Rooney had a 24-save shutout as Minnesota blanked Montreal 3-0 on Saturday in Professional Women's Hockey League action.

Grace Zumwinkle had a hat trick for Minnesota (2-0-0), putting her third goal into an empty net with 2:47 left in the third.

Anne-Renee Desbiens stopped 19-of-21 shots in net for Montreal (1-1-0).

It was the largest crowd to ever attend a professional women's hockey game, with 13,316 fans packed into Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul, Minn.

The crowd surpassed the 8,318 that sold out Tuesday’s PWHL game between Ottawa and Montreal at The Arena at TD Place in Canada's capital city.

Before the PWHL season, the championship game of the 2021-22 Svenska Damhockeyligan season between Brynäs and Luleå held the worldwide professional women’s hockey record with a crowd of 7,765. 

The previous North American record for a regular-season professional women’s hockey game was 5,938, established Dec. 10, 2016, in the CWHL when Les Canadiennes de Montréal hosted the Calgary Inferno at Bell Centre. 

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 6, 2024.