As temperatures dipped to near freezing Sunday outside Capital One Arena, Molly McCormick — clad in a turquoise and blue New York Sirens sweater that she crocheted herself — waited near the front of the line to get in, joining thousands of fans eager to watch the Sirens play the Montreal Victoire in the first-ever visit to D.C. by the fledgling Professional Women’s Hockey League.
“I love women’s sports,” said McCormick, who traveled from Maryland’s Eastern Shore for the game, the latest stop on the PWHL’s 2025-26 Takeover Tour. The event was her first time at the arena; like many in attendance, she wanted to help the league.
“I love to support the whole objective of women’s sports,” McCormick said.
Inside the arena, parents urged their hockey-loving children to press their faces against the rinkside glass. The crowd was a mix of die-hard Washington Capitals fans, women’s sports enthusiasts and youth hockey players excited for their first taste of the pros.
The two-hour drive from Hershey, Pennsylvania, to the District didn’t faze Kim and Jim Beeghley or their 11-year-old daughter, Katie, who plays for two coed youth hockey teams. According to her dad, Katie doesn’t get exposed to much women’s hockey where they live.
“We have the Hershey Bears,” a men’s minor league team, Jim Beeghley said, but he wanted Katie “to see professional women’s hockey up close.”
Sophie Fierst, of Fort Totten, Maryland, has been a fan of the league since its first game, on New Year’s Day 2024. She has been to multiple Sirens home games at the Prudential Center in Newark.
However, on Sunday, she wore a Victoire jersey. “I’ve rooted for a couple of teams,” Fierst said. “I don’t have a solid favorite, but I really like Montreal’s players.” Fierst said she would switch her allegiance to a D.C. team — if the city had one.
“I think it would be great to have more hockey,” she said. “There’s not a lot of options for hockey that isn’t the Capitals. And I think it would be great to have girls be able to see a female sports team.”
The PWHL’s Takeover Tour is a barnstorming-style series of 16 games in 11 neutral sites that don’t already feature a PWHL franchise. The tour kicked off in December in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and has included games across Canada and the United States. The tour will run through April, with a pause as the PWHL takes a break for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Last year’s Takeover Tour drew over 123,000 fans across nine cities, including Seattle and Vancouver, a few months before those two cities were selected for new franchises in the league’s first expansion.
Nathalie Donaghy, Cody Hoodiman and Hannah Smith were in attendance for one of those games, at the Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina — home of the National Hockey League’s Carolina Hurricanes. This time, the trio drove four hours to Washington for another taste of the league.
Donaghy said her previous experience with the PWHL was “the most fun I’ve had at a hockey game in a long time. The crowd, the vibes, good DJ, dancing.” Smith added that Raleigh has a huge girls’ youth hockey movement.
In a social media post Friday, Ted Leonsis, chief executive of Monumental Sports & Entertainment, called Sunday’s game “a major milestone for our region and for women’s sports.” As an owner of Washington-based sports teams including the Capitals, the National Basketball Association’s Wizards and the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Mystics, Leonsis is a potential candidate to help bring a PWHL franchise to the region.
Isabella Bungo and Ryann Gollings already plan to purchase season tickets if a future franchise is announced in D.C. The pair, who both coach women’s softball, drove to D.C. from Baltimore on Sunday, excited to support women’s sports. It was the first PWHL game for them, and Bungo said they “got in line early to get some merch.”
The PWHL continues working to build fan interest and its number of teams. The Sirens recently announced they would be hosting their April 4 home game against the Seattle Torrent at New York’s Madison Square Garden instead of their usual home. For their part, the Torrent’s home debut earlier this season set what was then a women’s hockey attendance record.
Sunday’s matchup between the Sirens and Victoire — culminating in a 2-1 win for New York — ended up breaking Seattle’s attendance record, with 17,288 fans, according to the PWHL. That’s the most ever for an in-arena game in U.S. women’s hockey history.
There’s speculation that the league could add up to four new teams in the coming offseason.
As the horn sounded to signal the start of the third period, Capitals superfan Mo Abbassi, of Potomac, Maryland, put it simply: “I want a PWHL team in DC.”
Abbassi is the owner of the Washington Capitals channel on Discord, a social media messaging app for community-building. He’s been a fan of the NHL team since 2010, and he said the arena on Sunday felt the way it did in 2018, during the Caps’ successful pursuit of the Stanley Cup.
“The people here are amazing,” he said. “It’s got the backing. I’m hoping we get a D.C. team.” He added: “This is a hockey market. … I think it would absolutely take off if we ever get one here. It would be awesome.”
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