LOWELL – Caitlin Clark move over. You’ve got some company on the pro women’s sports pedestal.
While the basketball sensation made her debut 100 miles away in Connecticut on Tuesday night, there was some other big-time women’s sport news down the street here.
Boston and Montreal.
In hockey playoffs. Sounds like fun, doesn’t it?
Well, this time it’s the Boston vs. Montreal pro women’s hockey programs.
Times are certainly changing in the world of sports.
The path for women to become legitimate superstar athletes has opened up larger than ever before, beyond the soccer national team.
We’ve seen the women’s basketball stars in the past, such as Diana Taurasi, Cynthia Cooper, and Sue Bird, among many others.
Now, there’s a new generation of women’s basketball stars, like Clark, Angel Reese & Co.
Despite this path opening for basketball players, that has been widely spoken about within the past year, there’s been a meteoric rise in the world of women’s hockey, and the PWHL can be thanked for that.
If you have not seen anything on the inaugural season of the PWHL, now is the time to change that.
With the Boston team playing right in our backyard at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, and ticket prices being significantly cheaper than any other local hockey team would offer, take the time and watch some unbelievable talent.
Led by captain Hilary Knight, one of the greatest women’s hockey players of all time, Boston has won six of their last seven games, and looks to be well on their way to the finals.
You want sold-out playoff hockey?
This Boston team has been playing in it, with back-to-back overtime thrillers on the road in Montreal, and it continued in game 3, in front of a ferocious crowd in Lowell.
As a student at UMass Lowell, hearing the chatter around campus about the PWHL has been a pleasant surprise. Being in the building for a majority of the home games throughout the regular season, there is a real opportunity for the PWHL to thrive in this market.
The future for women to become professional athletes is brighter than ever before, and it surely will continue on that trajectory. Right now, we are watching history in the making, with childhood dreams coming true.
Decades ago, none of this would have been possible for women to make their name in the world of sports.
Now, thanks to many fearless trailblazers, it’s real, and it’s here to stay.
Follow Evan Applebaum on X at EvanApplebaum2.
