Professional Women's Hockey League inspires female athletes in Calgary

The official launch of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) is inspiring female athletes in Calgary.

Calgary doesn't have a team in the league, but the local hockey community is excited about the doors it will open for women who want to play professionally.

Gabriella Durante has been playing hockey for 14 years, five of them as a goalie with the University of Calgary Dinos women's hockey team.

"Now that there's an established North American league, it's super exciting and it gives me something to chase after following university and something little girls can grow up striving for," she told CTV News.

Durante watched the PWHL's inaugural game on New Year’s Day, where New York beat Toronto 4-0.

She says the most exciting part was seeing women she knows and has played with shine on the ice.

"To see them on TV, performing like they were, it was just amazing and it gives me an itch I need to scratch now," Durante said with a laugh.

Ottawa and Montreal faced off for the second PWHL game on Tuesday, in front of a sold-out crowd of about 8,000 people in the capital.

Former U of C Dinos women's hockey coach Carla MacLeod is now in her dream job as head coach of Ottawa's pro team.

"This experience is what we've been waiting for and working towards for generations. Women well before my era, you know, and it's just now to a point where we can be really proud and truly enjoy it," MacLeod told CTV Morning Live Ottawa on Tuesday.

Lauren Williams played professional hockey in the Canadian Women's Hockey League, the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association and the Swedish Women's Hockey League.

Now retired, she helps coach the next wave of female players on the Mount Royal University Cougars.

Williams believes the PWHL will help grow the sport.

"The ability for them to see women playing at such a high level and see it consistently as opposed to just, you know, whenever a rivalry series comes around, or whenever Worlds or the Olympics comes around, is huge for them," Williams said.

"This gives (girls and women) the sense of, 'OK, this is something I can make a career out of,' just like every young boy gets to (dream of) when they're growing up playing hockey."

Strides are also being made in women's soccer.

The Calgary Foothills Soccer Club will join the first Canadian women's professional league in 2025.

"It just shows that people want to support women in sport and we're finally getting that opportunity to have that platform to do it," said Sarah Taylor, foundation phase manager with the Calgary Foothills Soccer Club.

"I think we're going to inspire, really, a generation."

Josh Gosling, interim head coach of the U of C Dinos women's hockey team, hopes Calgary will soon be part of the PWHL, too.

"These athletes, they work hard, they come to work every day, they train hard," he said.

"There's such a passionate hockey community here. There's a ton of female players. I think it'd be awesome. I think (they'd) have a ton of support."