The PWHL's Takeover Tour makes its stop in Chicago with Minnesota Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield and Ottawa Charge forward Taylor House playing near home. The game highlights the local women’s hockey community and follows a recent matchup between these teams.
On Sunday, the PWHL will mark its second of sixteen stops on this season's Takeover Tour series as the league heads to Chicago, IL to see the Minnesota Frost take on the Ottawa Charge. For two players on these rosters, it will be a homecoming of sorts, as Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield (Palos Heights, IL) and Charge forward Taylor House (Joliet, IL) each grew up about forty minutes away from Allstate Arena.
For both players, this game is more than just an opportunity to play so close to home, although both are excited to do so. It is a chance to showcase the women's hockey community around Chicago and the surrounding area.
"To bring women's professional hockey, to bring the PWHL, a league we've dreamed about for so long, a league that I wish was in existence so many years ago for generations of players to have the opportunity that we now have today," said Coyne Schofield. "And I know the impact that Sunday's game will have on so many people who will see the PWHL for the first time, boys and girls, men and women, who come into the rink and leave saying, 'I want to go back.'"
House echoed that sentiment: "Once that was announced, just the feedback that I got from people being like 'We're coming, like our whole league or our whole club wants to go,'" she said. "We've got a big group coming and being able to have family and friends and everyone that hasn't seen you play since high school. And so being able to grow up and actually play a professional women's hockey game in Illinois, it's huge for us."
With the league looking to expand, these Takeover Tour games provide an opportunity to showcase just how viable different markets could be, and that isn't lost on Coyne Schofield, who also supports youth sports programs in the area through the work she does with her foundation. "I hope, whether people in Chicago, the Chicagoland area or nearby, can fill these buildings and show 'Hey, Chicago can be a viable market,'" she said. "We don't make those decisions. We just put the best product on the ice that we can. We get two chances [this season] to really showcase what Chicago has to offer for the league. And I think we're going to put on a good show for them and hopefully get everybody excited to see that it's a viable market."
House will have a number of friends and family in attendance, and so will Coyne Schofield, who also got tickets for her sister's youth organization that she coaches.
This game will be the two teams' second matchup of the season. In game three for both sides, Minnesota came away with a 5-1 victory at TD Place in a game that featured the emotional return of Ottawa's head coach Carla MacLeod behind the bench following her breast cancer announcement. The Charge will be motivated by redemption, while the Frost will look to continue their strong play against the team they beat in the Walter Cup Finals.