The 2016 Outdoor Women's Classic presented by Scotiabank was an

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

game played on December 31, 2015, at

Gillette Stadium Gillette Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium located in the town of Foxborough, Massachusetts, which is southwest of downtown Boston. It serves as the home stadium and administrative offices for both the New England Patriots of the National Foot ...

in Foxborough, Massachusetts, between the Boston Pride of the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...

and Les Canadiennes of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the leag ...

. It was the first outdoor ice hockey game between professional women's teams; it ended in a 1–1 tie. The game was played one day before the

2016 NHL Winter Classic The 2016 NHL Winter Classic (officially the 2016 Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic) was an outdoor regular season National Hockey League (NHL) game, part of the Winter Classic series, played on January 1, 2016. The game, the eighth Winter Classic, ...

, between the

Boston Bruins The Boston Bruins are a professional ice hockey team based in Boston. The Bruins compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team has been in existence since 1924, making t ...

and

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

Announcement

Publicity around the game was kept to a minimum after a report surfaced on December 5 that there would be a game between the two teams. On December 28, the game was officially announced, although players felt that it was overshadowed by other game-day events, including an NHL alumni game that followed the women's game.

Game

The game was played in two 15-minute periods, with running time. Montreal's Kim Deschenes scored the first goal of the game at 3:15 of the first period, while

Blake Bolden Blake Alexis Bolden (born March 10, 1991) is an American ice hockey player and scout for the Los Angeles Kings of the National Hockey League (NHL). On October 11, 2015, she became the first African-American player to compete in the National Women ...

registered the game-tying goal for Boston late in the second period.

Injury

During the game, Pride player

Denna Laing Denna Christine Laing (born May 12, 1991) is an American former professional ice hockey player. She last played for the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) until a career-ending injury. At the collegiate level, she accumul ...

stepped on a stick and crashed into the boards head first. Removed from the ice on a stretcher, she was taken to the hospital. On January 8, 2016, Laing's family announced that she had suffered a severe

spinal cord injury A spinal cord injury (SCI) is damage to the spinal cord that causes temporary or permanent changes in its function. Symptoms may include loss of muscle function, sensation, or autonomic function in the parts of the body served by the spinal cor ...

and that she had limited movement of her arms and no feeling in her legs.

Announcement

Game

Injury

References

Further reading