PWHL getting first U.S. national TV broadcast on March 28 with Ion

In the wake of the excitement around women’s hockey from the Milan-Cortina Games, the Professional Women’s Hockey League is ready for its close-up in America.

As reported earlier this week by Sports Business Journal’s Austin Karp and Alex Silverman, the PWHL will have its first U.S. national TV broadcast on March 28 at 1 p.m. ET with a game between the New York Sirens and Montréal Victoire. The game, which is part of the PWHL Takeover Tour, will be played at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit. The Scripps Sports-owned Ion will broadcast the contest with Ally Financial as a sponsor.

“With the Olympics, it became very clear that there’s a lot more interest in women’s hockey than just in the northern third of our country,” said Brian Lawlor, Scripps Sports President, told SBJ. “We just felt in the last couple of weeks like the PWHL is having a moment and we’ll see what kind of traction they build off of this.”

The game will feature several players who participated in the 2026 Winter Olympics for Team USA and Team Canada, including Montreal’s Hayley Scamurra, Ann-Renée Desbiens, Erin Ambrose, Kati Tabin, Marie-Philip Poulin, and Laura Stacey, as well as New York’s Kayle Osborne, Sarah Fillier, and Kristin O’Neill.

Per SBJ, the network is still determining how the broadcast will look and if there will be pre-game, post-game, or other shoulder programming.

The PWHL already has a Canadian national distribution deal, but all of its American distribution so far has been through local and regional outlets, including NESN, MSG Networks, FanDuel Sports Network North, TEGNA, and Scripps (which shows local PWHL games in Las Vegas, Detroit, Denver, and Tampa-St. Pete). Games have also been streamed on YouTube, and this one will be as well on Ion’s channel.

As for whether this signals the start of a bigger programming relationship between the women’s hockey league and Ion, Lawlor isn’t committing just yet, but is very open to more games.

“I don’t know if it’s ready for a game of the week [like the WNBA or NWSL],” said Lawlor. “I am hopeful that we will potentially do more this season and do more and whatever that looks like next year. We really like what they’re doing. I really like the people there. I think they’re really smart about the way they’re expanding and what their strategy is.”