The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) comes to Hockeytown Saturday evening as part of the PWHL takeover weekend.
Ottawa-Boston will face-off at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit at 6:00 p.m, while Toronto-Montréal will to play at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena on Mar. 17 at 12:30 p.m.
Some local players will also be be attending the game with the Sun Parlour Female Hockey Association (SPFHA) who represents the Windsor Wildcats, LaSalle Sabrecats, Tecumseh Tigercats and the U22 Elite level Wildcats.
Rob Modestino, executive vice-president with SPFHA says those attending the game will have the opportunity to see local players in action as well.
"I think it's a shootout or 3-on-3 game at the intermissions. Just like they would do for NHL games."
Modestino says a lot of the associations teams have cancelled games and practices in order to be able to attend, so he expects a large turnout of players from Windsor-Essex.
He says he would like to see the PWHL expand not only to Detroit but to all cities with NHL teams.
Currently there are only six franchises split between Canada and the United States.
Modestino says if Detroit had a franchise, it would give local players more inspiration and something to strive for.
"Outside of university scholarships the really only goal for the players was the Canadian Olympic team and with 25 or 30 spots available throughout all of Canada, that's kind of a really lofty goal to have and you have to really really be up in the elite level. With more teams available it give you more opportunities to play at that professional level."
An attendance record of 19,285 was set at Scotiabank Arena when PWHL Toronto hosted Montreal Feb. 16.
"I'd really like to see this Saturday game in Detroit come close to setting the record that was set in Toronto. Looking online at Ticketmaster it looks like the tickets are pretty sold out," Modestino said. "So it'd be great to see if we did have a sold out game here."
SPFHA is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, developing and serving the needs of female hockey players throughout the Windsor-Essex County region.
SPFHA, was established in 1993 as the first hockey program in the region solely devoted to female hockey.
It is the largest female hockey association in the area with approximately 500 players.