Shannon Szabados – currently the only woman playing in a North American men’s professional hockey league – made history Saturday night when she became the first woman to record a shutout in a men’s professional hockey game.
She’s a member of the Columbus Cottonmouths of the Southern Professional Hockey League and they defeated the Huntsville Havoc 3-0.
She made 33 saves in the victory, moving her club to 9-9-4 overall this season. They are currently in sixth place in the nine-team league based in the southeastern United States.
1st Pro Shutout! #3-0 #33saves #VsHunstville pic.twitter.com/D57KLndtNT
— Shannon Szabados (@ShannonSzabados) December 27, 2015
The two-time Olympic gold medalist for Canada joined the Cottonmouths near the end of the 2013-14 season, shortly after the Sichi Olympics. She’s in her second full-season with the team and has a 18-16-4-1, with a .907 save percentage and 3.29 goals-against average in 39 games. This term, she is 3-5-3 with a .909 save percentage in 12 starts. Her save percentage against men isn’t far from the .980 save percentage she posted in Vancouver and .954 save percentage four years later at the Sochi Games against the top women’s players in the world. If she continues to play against men leading up to the 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics, she will be very difficult to score on considering the women’s game is slower paced than their male counterpart.
