Grace Zumwinkle scored the first hat-trick in the Professional Women’s Hockey League and Maddie Rooney earned the shutout as Minnesota won their home opener, blanking Montreal 3-0 on Saturday afternoon in front of a record crowd of 13,316 at Xcel Energy Center.
The previous record, 8,318 was set Tuesday at the sold-out Arena at TD Place in Ottawa to watch Montreal earn a 3-2 win in overtime on Tuesday. Minnesota won at Boston by the same score on Wednesday.
The PWHL, which launched its inaugural season on New Year’s Day, said Saturday’s turnout set an attendance record for professional women’s ice hockey.
“Living in the State of Hockey, I knew our fans would show up for us, but today they have taken it to a whole new level,” Minnesota general manager and former US national team player Natalie Darwitz said. “I’ve enjoyed numerous amazing hockey experiences in Minnesota over my career, and experiencing today and the record crowd was emotional and ranks near the top of the list.”
Zumwinkle, who scored a goal in the season opener in Boston, is from Excelsior, Minnesota, and played her collegiate hockey at the University of Minnesota. Rooney, from Duluth, played collegiately at the University of Minnesota-Duluth before winning a gold medal in goal for the United States at the 2018 Olympic Games.
Montreal pushed and set the pace for the game early and had three power plays without committing a penalty through the first two periods, outshooting Minnesota 21-12, but trailed 1-0 to start the third period.
Zumwinkle backhanded a shot past Ann-Renée Desbiens with 2:39 left in the first period, beating the 2022 gold medalist for Canada to her stick side. After a scoreless second period Zumwinkle skated to the top of the slot and rocketed a shot past Desbien at the 1:47 mark of the third and added an empty net goal at 17:13 of the period.
Montreal did not get a shot on goal through the first 11 minutes of the third period. Desbiens finished with 19 saves on 21 shots. Rooney stopped all 24 Montreal shots on goal.
Montreal plays at New York and Minnesota plays host to Toronto on Wednesday.
