Minnesota becomes the inaugural champion of the Professional Women's Hockey League

By Ayana Archie

Published May 30, 2024 at 1:56 AM EDT

Minnesota forward Michela Cava, middle right, celebrates with defender Abby Cook, right, and teammates after scoring during the second period of a PWHL hockey game against Montreal on Wednesday night in St. Paul, Minn.

Minnesota has won the inaugural championship of the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

The team defeated Boston 3-0 Wednesday in game five of the series to take home the Walter Cup. The goals were scored by Liz Schepers, Michela Cava and team captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. Taylor Heise was named the playoff MVP after scoring five goals throughout.

“It took every single player and every single person you see on this ice right now to make it happen,” Schofield said. “There’s a lot of people that counted us out when we had that [five]-game slide coming into the playoffs. But we got in and we never looked back.”

The trophy was presented to the team by tennis legend Billie Jean King, who is a founding advisory board member for the league.

The league currently has six teams, each named simply by their places – Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto. They are all owned by the Mark Walter Group, whose namesake owns the Los Angeles Dodgers and a portion of Chelsea FC, a soccer team in the English Premier League.

The PWHL has garnered lots of interest and broken records, such as the highest attendance at a women’s hockey game ever, The Athletic reporter Hailey Salvian told NPR.