Kendall Coyne Schofield wows with her speed in NHL All Star Skills Competition

SAN JOSE, CA – Kendall Coyne Schofield owns one Olympic and five World Championship gold medals, but Friday night was one for posterity.

“This is definitely a top three moment in my career,” she said.

It was so much more than that. Friday night was a watershed moment for women athletes everywhere, proof that as much as the NHL says it, hockey really is for everyone.

Coyne Schofield became the first woman to participate in the NHL’s Skills Competition at All-Star Weekend in San Jose.

Previously, the NHL used the top Canadian and American women stars only to demonstrate the Skills Competition drills.

But in a Fastest Skater competition in which the All-Star veterans have bowed out in recent years because they didn’t want to be embarrassed by Connor McDavid, Coyne Schofield readily laced up her skates in place of injured Colorado Avalanche starNathan MacKinnon.