Minnesota forward Michela Cava, middle right, celebrates with defenseman Abby Cook, right, and her teammates after scoring during the second period of a PWHL hockey game against Montreal Wednesday night at St. Paul, Minn.
Abbie Parr/AP
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Abbie Parr/AP
Minnesota won the first Professional Women’s Hockey League championship.
The team defeated Boston 3-0 (cq) on Wednesday in Game 5 of the series to win the Walter Cup. The goals were scored by Liz Schepers, Michela Cava(cq) and team captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. Taylor Heise was named playoff MVP after scoring five goals throughout.
“It took every player and every person you see on this ice right now to make this happen,” Schofield said. “A lot of people wrote us off when we had that (five) game slide before the playoffs. But we went in and never looked back.
The trophy was presented to the team by tennis legend Billie Jean King, a founding member of the league’s advisory board.
The league currently has six teams, each named simply by its city: Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa and Toronto. They all belong to the Mark Walter Group, whose namesake owns the Los Angeles Dodgers and part of Chelsea FC, a soccer team in the English Premier League.
The PWHL generated a lot of interest and broke records, such as the largest attendance ever at a women’s hockey game, Athleticism Journalist Hailey Salvian told NPR.
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