TORONTO — The line began at the gates of Mattamy Athletic Centre and stretched a full city block. Women’s hockey fans, after decades of waiting for a best-on-best league, were happy to wait a little longer for the doors to open for the first-ever Professional Women’s Hockey League game.
The line was dotted with reminders of the past. There was a Natalie Spooner Toronto Furies jersey from her time in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League. Several Toronto Six jerseys representing the Premier Hockey Federation and some from the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association exhibition stops. The people wearing those jerseys from previous eras of women’s professional hockey were on their way into the old Maple Leaf Gardens to celebrate something new: the inaugural game of the PWHL between Toronto and New York.
Later, inside the arena, two young girls were locked in. Ella Shelton was on the ice, and the girls — who wore matching Shelton jerseys and waved homemade signs — wanted her attention. Not long before New York left the ice, Shelton finally locked in on them and flipped them a puck.
She made their day. Less than an hour later, she made history.
The Team Canada defender from Ingersoll, Ont., scored the first-ever PWHL goal less than 11 minutes into the game. The…
