“The growth of the professional women’s hockey league has absolutely increased the visibility of women’s sports,” said Kristen Sagaert, the director of girls hockey at USA Hockey. The game averaged 5.3 million viewers in the United States across USA Network and Peacock, making it the most-watched women’s hockey game in history, according to Nielsen. “The Olympics are the largest platform where we have millions of people watching women’s hockey and where we have a lot of people who don’t typically watch women’s hockey watching it.” “My experience playing girls’ hockey is very different than the opportunities available to the girls in Arizona right now,” Sagaert said. When the NCAA officially began sanctioning women’s ice hockey in the 2000–01 season, there were 31 teams.