1 1 Date December 31, 2015 | 1 1 Arena Gillette Stadium | |
City Foxborough, Massachusetts | ||
The 2016 Outdoor Women's Classic presented by Scotiabank was a hockey game on December 31, 2015 in Gillette Stadium between the Boston Pride of the National Women's Hockey League and Les Canadiennes of the Canadian Women's Hockey League that ended in a 1-1 tie. It occurred one day before the 2016 NHL Winter Classic, which occurred between the Boston Bruins and Montreal Canadiens. It was the first outdoor professional women's hockey game. Montreal's Kim Deschenes would score the first goal of the game while Blake Bolden registered the game-tying goal for Boston.
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Announcement
Publicity around the game was kept to a minimum after a report surfaced on December 5th 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 events that day, including the alumni game which followed the women's game.
Injury
During the game, Pride player Denna Laing 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 and that she had limited movement of her arms and no feeling in her legs.