Harmon’s 5 points help Team King win PWHL 3-on-3 Showcase

TORONTO -- Savannah Harmon capped a historic night for the Professional Women's Hockey League with what she called the first hat trick of her life, scoring it in front of more than 16,000 fans.

Harmon also had two assists to give her five points, more than enough to help Team King win the Canadian Tire PWHL 3-on-3 Showcase, defeating Team Kloss 5-3 in the final event at NHL All-Star Thursday at Scotiabank Arena.

"Definitely one of the funnest games I've been a part of," said Harmon, a defenseman for Ottawa in the PWHL. "Just a really awesome atmosphere. The group that's here is just incredible. We had a great day so far and to end it like that was a lot of fun."

Marie-Philip Poulin (Montreal), Blayre Turnbull (Toronto) and Alina Muller (Boston) each had two assists, Kendall Coyne Schofield (Minnesota) had a goal and an assist, and Ella Shelton (New York) also scored for Team King.

Ann-Renee Desbiens (Montreal) made eight saves on 10 shots in the first period, and Aerin Frankel (Boston) stopped five shots in the second.

Alex Carpenter (New York) had a goal and an assist, and Jocelyne Larocque (Toronto) and Brianne Jenner (Ottawa) also scored for Team Kloss. Emerance Maschmeyer (Ottawa) made six saves on eight shots in the first period; Nicole Hensley (Minnesota) made six saves in the second.

The two teams were named in honor of Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss, who are PWHL Advisory Board members and longtime advocates of equality for women in sports.

The 20-minute 3-on-3 game featured 24 players from the PWHL, which is in its inaugural season. They played in front of a crowd of 16,392.

"Coming here, the biggest thing [about] having our own event has been what creates that visibility for us," Shelton said. "It shows that we're just as important and just as valued as the NHL. To have them backing us has been incredible as well. I think that big push allows us to have potentially our own event, and maybe in the future it becomes two separate all-stars but maybe it's still all in the same weekend. It just allows us to get our feet underneath us and hopefully grow from there."

The 3-on-3 showcase was the fifth time women have participated on the ice at NHL All-Star Weekend, starting with Coyne Schofield participating in the Fastest Skater competition at the 2019 NHL All-Star Skills at SAP Center in San Jose.

"It just gets better and better every year," Coyne Schofield said. "Here today we're representing the league we've always dreamed of. … We've worked very hard for this platform. To be able to come out to that full building was pretty surreal."

Shelton gave Team King a 1-0 lead 59 seconds into the first period. Harmon found her at the right post with a pass out of the left face-off circle, and Shelton backhanded it into the net.

Carpenter scored an unassisted goal to tie it 1-1 at 2:07 after Desbiens whiffed on a clearing attempt.

Larocque gave Team Kloss a 2-1 lead at 4:26, scoring on a breakaway after being sprung by Carpenter.

Harmon tied it 2-2 at 9:39, scoring from in front of the left post off a redirection of a pass from Poulin.

She scored her second at 3:05 of the second period to give Team King a 3-2 lead. Poulin found her across the slot, and Harmon put the puck in with Hensley out of position.

Harmon finished the hat trick at 3:40, making it 4-2 by scoring on her own rebound.

Instead of throwing hats onto the ice, the players threw their gloves. Shelton said Kelly Pannek (Minnesota) had the idea to do the glove toss.

"She also wanted to throw her helmet out there, and we were like, 'Do we have enough time, can we all get our helmets off quick enough?'" Shelton said. "I think it was the best way for us to engage with 'Sav' scoring a hat trick. Too bad we couldn't throw a hat."

Coyne Schofield scored from in front to extend it to 5-2 at 6:45.

Jenner scored on a one-timer from below the left circle at 8:54 for the 5-3 final.

"It was really cool for all of us," Harmon said. "We're incredibly honored to be here and incredibly excited to be a part of the NHL and their All-Star Weekend. To come out and see the fans stay and want to see us showcase our league and our talents, it was just really fun.

"We're just really proud to be in this position and to be here and to be representing this league and inspiring the youth. That's why we do it."