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| Date | December 31, 2015 | ||||||||||||
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| Venue | Gillette Stadium | ||||||||||||
| City | Foxborough, Massachusetts | ||||||||||||
The2016 Outdoor Women's Classic presented by Scotiabank was anice hockey game played on December 31, 2015, atGillette Stadium inFoxborough, Massachusetts, between theBoston Pride of theNational Women's Hockey League andLes Canadiennes of theCanadian Women's Hockey League. It was the first outdoor ice hockey game between professional women's teams; it ended in a 1–1 tie.[1] The game was played one day before the2016 NHL Winter Classic, between theBoston Bruins andMontreal Canadiens.
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.[2]
The game was played in two 15-minute periods, with running time.[3] Montreal'sKim Deschenes scored the first goal of the game at 3:15 of the first period, whileBlake Bolden registered the game-tying goal for Boston late in the second period.[1]
During the game, Pride playerDenna 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.[4] On January 8, 2016, Laing's family announced that she had suffered a severespinal cord injury and that she had limited movement of her arms and no feeling in her legs.[5]