TSN to feature its first female NHL play-by-play announcer tonight

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Kenzie Lalonde will be making history tonight for TSN.

When the Toronto Maple Leafs and Ottawa Senators take to the ice for a Battle of Ontario matchup, Lalonde will become TSN’s first-ever female play-by-play broadcaster for an NHL game, working the Senators regional broadcast.

Lalonde, a native of Stittsville, Ontario, spent five seasons playing hockey at Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, the latter two of which she was team captain. She had previously joined the network in 2022, working as a Montreal Canadiens reporter and calling women’s hockey action on the network, including this year’s PWHL Walter Cup Final.

But growing up in the Ottawa region and closely following the Senators, tonight’s broadcast seems to be extra-sentimental for Lalonde.

“If Sparty had whispered to this three-year-old girl that one day she would wake up on a Tuesday morning and call play-by-play for the Ottawa Senators, she wouldn’t have believed him,” Lalonde tweeted alongside a picture of her young self with the Senators mascot. “I am incredibly excited to be in the booth tonight for my first Senators game on TSN.”

Gord Miller and Matt Cullen will also call Senators games on TSN this year.

Lalonde is hoping that her work will inspire future aspiring broadcasters.

“There was nobody who looked like me or sounded like me doing this job when I was growing up. I didn’t even think this was possible. I only thought a role for a woman in sports broadcasting was to be a reporter or to be a host. So when people ask me if this is a dream come true, I can’t really say that it is because I never thought this was possible,” Lalonde told NHL.com.

Lalonde’s call will be available on TSN5 in the Ottawa region, while Toronto-area viewers can catch the Leafs broadcast on TSN4.

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