Top spot in the PWHL and attendance record at stake in latest Montreal-Toronto showdown

Click on the video player above to watch the PWHL matchup between Toronto and Montreal.

Marie-Philip Poulin skated on to the ice at the Bell Centre, looked up in the stands and saw empty seats.

Fewer than 6,000 people watched a Les Canadiennes Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) game in the NHL arena on that day in 2017.

It was a surreal experience for the Montreal captain to play at the Bell Centre for that game, but she dreamed of more for the sport she loves.

"You hope that one day it will be packed," Poulin said. 

It's what Poulin, and some of the best female players in the world, wanted to create when they decided to take a stand after the CWHL folded in 2019.

They decided not to play in any professional league until they could create something that was sustainable, a league that would pay them a living wage and give their sport the spotlight it lacked.

More than six years after that Les Canadiennes game, Poulin and the rest of PWHL Montreal will take on Toronto on Saturday afternoon at the Bell Centre in front of an expected crowd of more than 21,000.

The sold-out game is poised to set a record for the most-attended women's hockey game, smashing another record set just two months ago when more than 19,000 fans watched Montreal and Toronto play in Scotiabank Arena.

You can watch Montreal take on Toronto at the Bell Centre on Saturday at 1 p.m. ET on CBC TV, CBCSports.ca, the CBC Sports app and CBC Gem.

"Knowing it's going to be a packed house, to be able to celebrate women's hockey, being able to be in that historic moment here at the Bell Centre, it's going to be unbelievable," Poulin said. 

It will be the biggest crowd head coach Kori Cheverie has ever coached in front of, and far away from the crowds she saw as a player with Toronto in the CWHL from 2010 to 2016.

Since Montreal's home opener on Jan. 13, when the puck was dropped by women's hockey pioneers Caroline Ouellette, Kim St-Pierre, France St-Louis, Danielle Goyette and GM Danièle Sauvageau, players have talked about the women who came before them. Players who competed in front of sparse crowds for no pay, but loved the game just as much.

On Friday at the Bell Centre, before taking part in another big moment in this inaugural season, those women were on the players' minds.