Inside Ottawa’s record-breaking PWHL debut: ‘I’ve never seen anything like this’

OTTAWA — Minutes after her team lost a 3-2 overtime decision in their home opener, Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod took her spot at the postgame press conference podium.

Instead of wallowing in the aftermath of a heartbreaking loss as most coaches would, MacLeod looked out to the assembled media with a gleam of excitement in her eyes.

“I don’t know what to say. This is incredible,” MacLeod said. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

MacLeod was awestruck by the crowd of reporters who packed the tiny room adjacent to her team’s locker room at The Arena at TD Place. MacLeod is accustomed to only seeing a small handful of reporters covering the teams she’s played for or coached. But on Tuesday, she was speaking in front of seven television microphones and roughly two dozen reporters on hand to document a piece of hockey history.

An announced crowd of 8,318 attended Tuesday’s Ottawa-Montreal PWHL game, marking the largest crowd ever to watch a professional women’s hockey game. It surpassed the previous mark of 7,765 people on hand to watch a professional women’s game in Sweden in 2021-22.

So with a historic evening serving as the backdrop, MacLeod wasn’t interested in dissecting the nuances of the game.

“I think you’d be remiss to walk into an evening like tonight and be worried about the scoreboard,” MacLeod explained. “It wasn’t going to be about the result tonight. It was going to be about the experience tonight. And we just had an experience that I’m not sure you can ever duplicate.”

Hours before she scored the first-ever goal in Ottawa franchise history, Hayley Scamurra admitted there was a different feeling ahead of Tuesday’s game. The American-born forward had played before larger crowds — including one of almost 15,000 for a Rivalry Series game in Seattle — but believes there is something unique when fans show up to support a club team instead of a national women’s program.

“There’s something different about this. This is our home market for our pro league. It’s more intimate this way,” said Scamurra. “Everyone is going to know us. They’re going to know our names. And we’re going to be in the community.”

It was a unique experience on Tuesday, one that included Marie-Philip Poulin — considered royalty in this country for her clutch performances playing for Team Canada — getting booed in Canada’s capital city because she was wearing a Montreal jersey. Poulin was thwarted on a penalty shot attempt in the second period by Ottawa goalie Emerance Maschmeyer, sending the crowd into a frenzy.

“I think it’s amazing because if she gets booed, that means she’s amazing,” laughed Ann-Sophie Bettez, who scored the winning goal in overtime. “If they boo you, we feel that as they are cheering. I think it’s pretty special. And I feel like each home crowd will be like a…