The hours leading up to the 7:38 p.m. ET puck drop were busy for Scott, Mleczko and Coyne Schofield. Aside from the locker room and coaches visits that's part of their usual pregame prep, the three were doing promotional interviews and receiving many texts from well-wishers.
"The leadup to it certainly was different because there was a lot of attention, a lot of hype about it, which is wonderful that there's attention and people are excited about it," Mleczko said. "At one point it put me off balance a little bit. Like a player, I have a routine and I didn't feel like I could have that routine. But once the puck dropped and once you get going, it's just like any other game.
"I can't believe it was Kate's first hockey game. She was smooth, she was really easy to work with, we had a great rhythm. I've done a lot of games up top [in the booth] and a lot of games down low [between the benches], too. The three of us have never done a game together before, so whether male, female, doesn't matter. If you haven't done a game together, you're trying to find your rhythm and I thought it was a pretty easy one to find."
Scott said she leaned on Mleczko, who she met for the first time in early February, throughout the game. That was especially true at 14:59 of the second period, when there was a fight between Blues defenseman Vince Dunn and Blackhawks forward Drake Caggiula, and a delay while officials reviewed Blues forward Oskar Sundqvist's elbow to Blackhawks defenseman Adam Boqvist, reducing it to a two-minute minor off the original five-minute major call.
"We have a fight and I'm wondering, am I supposed to do play-by-play? Am I supposed to lay out? Being beside AJ and knowing she's been doing this for a while now was such a comfort to me," Scott said. "Usually as the play-by-play announcer, you're the one who's in charge and you know everything about everything. But I knew coming into this one that I was going to lean on AJ and she was incredible."
History was made with the broadcast. The women involved hope it shows that there are more opportunities out there.
"It's significant because of the visibility it provides," Mleczko said. "For people sitting at home watching the three of us here, and [Tappen] and [Botterill] in the studio, seeing females talking about hockey the way we are -- we're very prepared and educated in this game -- and all the promotions we did, showing the truck, that the production is amazing. For anybody sitting at home, boys, girls, men, women, coming out of college, whatever it is, it allows them to understand there are more opportunities. They may not choose to go that way, but the media's open to men, women, anyone, and visibility is the biggest part."
