More Than 125 Years Ago, Boston and New York First Faced Off In Women's Hockey

Last season, Boston and New York faced off five times in the inaugural PWHL campaign. New York bested Boston in the season series winning three times, but it was Boston who finished higher in the season standings earning their spot all the way to the Walter Cup finals.

Boston and New York have been rivals in sport for more than a century, and that includes women's hockey.

The first recorded women's hockey game between the two cities took place on March 22, 1917 when the St. Nicholas Rink of New York, nicknames the Blues, faced off against the Boston Girls' Hockey Club.

Kathleen Howard was a driving force behind the launch of a women's hockey team in New York. She came to New York City from Winnipeg when her husband Tom Howard, who won a Stanley Cup with the Winnipeg Victorias in 1896,  got a job coaching Yale and Columbia's hockey programs and playing for the New York Athletic Club.

In Boston, Ruth Denesha guided her team, which was coached by her brother Harry Denesha, another pro hockey player having previously competed with the New York Athletic Club himself.

The Boston Globe stated the local club, who would host the match at a then relatively new Boston Arena, now known as Matthews Arena, had been preparing for months for their first opportunity to play a game.

"The Boston girls have practiced faithfully for the past several months," wrote the Globe, "And although the young women were entirely unfamiliar with the game at the start, coach Harry Denesha has rounded out a team that should give a good account of themselves."

It proved prophetic in Boston's favor as the home team didn't disappoint.

When the teams faced off "in a match full of fancy falls and slides but a lot of good all round sport," as New York's Sun newspaper reported the following day, it was Boston who came away with a 3-2 win.

Ruth Denesha paced her team scoring twice in the win, while left winger Gertrude Hawkes had the other for Boston. Scoring for New York were rover Elsie Miller and Mildred Mann.

The teams would face off in other contests, but it was a short lived moment in women's hockey history as World War I interrupted most of the games being played at the time. But March 22, 1917, will forever be the day a women's hockey rivalry between Boston and New York was first put to the test.

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