Battle on Bay Street takes the spotlight following game four of PWHL Takeover Tour™
NEW YORK AND TORONTO (January 21, 2025) – A closer look at highlights on and off the ice from around the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL).
BATTLE ON BAY STREET RETURNS TO TORONTO
The Toronto Sceptres will host the New York Sirens at Scotiabank Arena on Saturday afternoon in the second edition of the Battle on Bay Street presented by Scotiabank. Last season Toronto hosted Montréal on Feb. 16, 2024, in front of a sold-out crowd of 19,285, which stands as the second-largest attendance in PWHL history behind the record-setting crowd of 21,105 when the two teams met at the Bell Centre on Apr. 20, 2024. Last night, Sceptres forward Sarah Nurse joined the Prime Monday Night sports desk with Adnan Virk and Blake Bolden live at Scotiabank Arena for an interview to talk about the game and the PWHL season. Click here to watch.
BACK-TO-BACK SELL-OUTS IN LA BELLE PROVINCE
The Montréal Victoire hosted two sold-out games last week, including a second consecutive sell-out at Place Bell on Friday night for a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Frost before a crowd of 10,172. They followed that with a 2-1 win over the Ottawa Charge on Sunday afternoon at Videotron Centre in Québec City with 18,259 in attendance for the fourth stop of the PWHL Takeover Tour™. The Victoire have now played in all nine of the top attended games this season, including the four Takeover Tour games that have totaled 63,923 fans. Attendance through 32 games this season is 235,474 – an average of 7,359 per game.
CHARGE AND VICTOIRE TAKE OVER QUÉBEC CITY
The Videotron Centre in Québec City became the 20th venue to host a PWHL game all-time and the sold-out crowd of 18,259 was the second largest of the season and fourth largest attendance in PWHL history. On the ice, hometown hero Catherine Dubois was named first star with a goal for the Victoire in the 2-1 victory before over 100 of her family and friends. Members of the Victoire paid homage to the city’s past and present hockey history by repping Québec Nordiques and Québec Remparts jerseys for their walk-ins. The Victoire also invited Remparts assistant general manager Nicole Bouchard, a fixture in Québec hockey for more than 40 years, to announce the team’s starting lineup. The Charge invited Québec City native Marilou Grenier, a gold medal-winning goaltender for Canada at the 2025 IIHF U18 Women’s World Championship, to read the team’s starting lineup. Leading up to the game, Ottawa players and staff experienced the local scene with a poutine tasting, a guided tour exploring the Petit Champlain quarter, and a sled ride down the historic Dufferin Terrace 1884 site on toboggans. On Saturday, members of both teams interacted with young players on and off the ice as part of Scotiabank Girls Hockey Fest. The next stop on the PWHL Takeover Tour™ is Edmonton, Alberta, where the Charge will take on the Sceptres at Rogers Place on Feb. 16. Click here for more.
BOSTON UNIVERSITY BATTLES NORTHEASTERN FOR BEANPOT TITLE
The stage is set for a women’s NCAA hockey showcase in the 46th annual Beanpot finale tonight at Boston’s TD Garden where the Boston University Terriers will take on the two-time defending champion Northeastern Huskies. The historic event between New England rivals has a long list of alumnae currently competing in the PWHL, including 18 Beanpot champions. A total of nine PWHL players won while competing for Northeastern including Boston’s Aerin Frankel (2020) and Alina Müller (2020/23), Minnesota’s Kendall Coyne Schofield (2012/13) and Katy Knoll (2020/23/24), Montréal’s Maureen Murphy (2023), New York’s Chloé Aurard (2020/23) and Brooke Hobson (2020), Ottawa’s Gwyneth Philips (2020/23/24), and Toronto’s Megan Carter (2020/23/24). Boston University Beanpot champions in the PWHL include New York’s Corinne Schroeder (2019) and Toronto’s Jesse Compher (2019). Boston College champions include Boston’s Megan Keller (2016/17), Montréal’s Cayla Barnes (2018), New York’s Alex Carpenter (2016), and Toronto’s Kali Flanagan (2016/17) and Daryl Watts (2018). Harvard champions include Minnesota’s Dominique Petrie (2022) and Ottawa’s Emerance Maschmeyer (2015). Coyne Schofield (2013), Maschmeyer (2015), Watts (2018), Aurard (2020) and Murphy (2023) all earned MVP honors while Maschmeyer and Schroeder are both members of the Women’s Beanpot Hall of Fame. Members of the Fleet will be in attendance to meet fans, sign autographs, and participate in the ceremonial puck drop. Last year’s championship game set a New England women’s hockey attendance record with 10,633 fans.
CZECHIA WINS GOLD AT 2025 FISU GAMES
Czechia defeated Canada 2-1 on Monday night to win gold in Torino, Italy, at the 2025 FISU World University Games. Since its founding in 1949, the International University Sports Federation has been the key driver to expand the role and reach of university sport around the world. The event has served as an international stage for several current PWHL players. New York’s Emmy Fecteau won gold as captain for Team Canada in 2023, the same event that Boston’s Daniela Pejšová won bronze with Czechia. Toronto’s Kaitlin Willoughby is a two-time silver medalist with Canada in the 2019 and 2017 events, and Montréal’s Alexandra Labelle and Catherine Dubois also earned silver medals in 2017.
SHOOTOUT HISTORY IN NEW YORK
Last Wednesday in New York, the Sirens defeated the Frost 3-2 following the longest shootout in PWHL history. The seven-round shootout featured two goals by Sirens forward Jessie Eldridge, including the winner. She’s the first player this season to tally twice in a single shootout and fourth all-time following Toronto’s Natalie Spooner (Feb. 23), Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle (Mar. 24) and Ottawa’s Kateřina Mrázová (Apr. 24) last season. So far this season, four of the league’s 32 games have gone to a shootout, representing 12.5% of all games. Last season, seven of the league’s 72 games were decided in a shootout (9.7%). Click here to see the PWHL schedule and scores.
MONTRÉAL’S POTENT POWER PLAY
The Victoire scored four of their six goals last week on the power play including back-to-back games in which they recorded two power play goals. After suffering an earlier stretch where the team went 0/19 with the advantage, Montréal has gone 6/17 in their last five games and lead the league with eight power play goals. There have been eight games this season where a team has capitalized twice on the power play, including three by Montréal, two by both Boston and New York, and one by Minnesota. PWHL power plays are currently operating at 20% efficiency, up from 16.7% during the inaugural season.
FIRST GOAL FOR CHANNELL-WATKINS
Frost veteran defender Mellissa Channell-Watkins scored her first career PWHL goal last week against New York in her 34th career game. The 30-year-old from Plymouth, MI, is one of 79 different goal scorers across the PWHL so far this season.
LEAGUE LEADERS
Montréal (6-2-1-2) has won two straight games and sit alone in first overall in the PWHL standings with 23 points, followed by Minnesota (4-3-2-3) with 20 points. New York (3-3-1-3) has also won two straight and rank third with 16 points. There is a three-way tie for first in PWHL scoring between New York rookie Sarah Fillier (5G, 6A), Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield (5G, 6A) and Frost defender Claire Thompson (1G, 10A), who each have 11 points. New York’s Alex Carpenter (5G, 5A) and Minnesota’s Taylor Heise (2G, 8A) round out the top five with 10 points each. Fillier, Coyne Schofield and Carpenter share a seven-way tie for first in goals with five each, along with Montréal’s Abby Boreen and Marie-Philip Poulin, and Minnesota’s Michela Cava and Britta Curl-Salemme. In goal, New York’s Corinne Schroeder and Montréal’s Ann-Renée Desbiens are tied for the league-lead with six wins each. Schroeder owns the league’s best goals-against-average at 1.86 and shares the top save percentage with Ottawa’s Emerance Maschmeyer at .934. Click to see standings and stats.
THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE
PWHL action resumes tonight with Ottawa’s second trip to Minnesota this season to face the Frost at Xcel Energy Center at 7 p.m. ET. Tomorrow, Boston returns home for their first game at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell since Dec. 17 where they’ll welcome Toronto at 7 p.m. ET. Weekend action begins on Saturday afternoon at 2 p.m. ET for the Battle on Bay Street at Scotiabank Arena in downtown Toronto, featuring the Sceptres and visiting New York Sirens. Then, on Sunday, the Fleet make their third trip to Minnesota in January to take on the Frost at 3 p.m. ET.
Tuesday, January 21, 2025
7 p.m. ET – Ottawa Charge at Minnesota Frost (Xcel Energy Center)
FanDuel Sports Network North, Prime Video (Canada)
Wednesday, January 22, 2025
7 p.m. ET – Toronto Sceptres at Boston Fleet (Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell)
TSN 1, NESN+
Saturday, January 25, 2025
2 p.m. ET – New York Sirens at Toronto Sceptres (Scotiabank Arena)
CBC, MSG/MSGHD
Sunday, January 26, 2025
3 p.m. ET – Boston Fleet at Minnesota Frost (Xcel Energy Center)
FanDuel Sports Network North, NESN, TSN 2
All PWHL games will be streamed on the league’s YouTube Channel and at thepwhl.com, and are available to watch worldwide outside of Canada, and in Czechia and Slovakia where games are available via Nova Sport.