Hockey History Made In Worcester At Railers Match

WORCESTER, MA — A Waltham woman broke a professional hockey glass ceiling — or perhaps ice ceiling — during a Worcester Railers game over the weekend.

During Saturday's match between the Worcester Railers and the Maine Mariners, Laura Schmidlein became the first woman to officiate a game in the 34 years the ECHL has been in existence.

Schmidlein has been a longtime hockey player, according to the ECHL. She played the sport for four years at Amherst College before officiating for the ECHL.

"Hockey has always been such an important part of my life and after graduating, skating games in this new capacity of officiating was my way of maintaining that piece of me," she said in an ECHL news release.

Apart from the ECHL, Schmidlein has been an official for youth hockey games, college games and in the women's Premier Hockey Federation.

The ECHL has one other woman official, Kirsten Welsh, who was also a referee at a 2020 NHL All-Star Game match. Heather McDaniel was the first woman to ref an NHL game in the mid-1990s. And this year the American Hockey League — home of the Providence Bruins and Springfield Thunderbirds — hired 10 women to officiate games.