“I don’t think when we first started we were going to get past one year,” said Sami Jo Small, a founding member of the C.W.H.L., who competed in the 1998 Olympics and still plays for the Toronto Furies.

Early on, the C.W.H.L.’s foundation was unstable at times, and growth was uncertain. But under the leadership of Commissioner Brenda Andress, the C.W.H.L. never wavered in its plan for slow but steady advancements, and in recent years, a rise in sponsorships and audience in Canada has the league closer to its goal.

On Saturday, the league will reach another milestone, when Les Canadiennes de Montreal play the Calgary Inferno in the C.W.H.L.’s first regular-season game at the Bell Centre, the home of the Montreal Canadiens of the N.H.L. A representative for the arena said that as of Thursday, close to 4,000 tickets had been sold.

“I think at a certain point in the league, generally, there might have been a sentiment there might be a white knight that would come along and inject a certain amount of money, and it would suddenly be a professional league,” said Meg Hewings, Les Canadiennes general manager, who has been with the C.W.H.L. since 2008. “That just hasn’t been the experience. If you look at how difficult it is to do league-building, it’s incredibly unsexy in many ways.”

Today the C.W.H.L. counts Molson Coors, Tim Hortons and Bauer, maker of hockey equipment, among its sponsors and partners. Although the N.H.L. has been cautious about fully investing in women’s professional hockey, the C.W.H.L. has received financial and promotional support from the Canadiens, the Ottawa Senators, the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Calgary Flames.