At the beginning of the season, most people predicted the PWHL’s two newest teams would dominate.
Both the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent stockpiled riches during the league’s first expansion process, drawing ire from fans of the original six teams.
But it hasn’t quite worked out that way.
As the league enters its final month of regular-season play, the intensity is ramping up and the stakes are high across the league. Only four of the eight teams make the playoffs, and with further expansion on the way, the PWHL is a win-now league.
Right now, the Goldeneyes (7th place) and Torrent (8th place) are among the teams on the outside looking in.
Things are worse for the Torrent, which have seven games remaining and trail fourth-place Toronto by 12 points. (A regulation win is worth three points in the PWHL.)
Vancouver, meanwhile, has a glimmer of hope. There’s been a hunger in the Goldeneyes’ game lately, and you could see it in Thursday’s 3-0 loss to Montreal.
“I thought they played desperate hockey,” Montreal Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie said about the Goldeneyes.
What’s gone wrong for Vancouver? You can start with an injury to forward Sarah Nurse, which kept her out of most of the first half of the season. Nurse has been one of the best players on this team when she’s been on the ice. On Thursday, she led the Goldeneyes with five shots, many of which were good opportunities.
None went into the net, and it’s the second time Vancouver has been shut out in the last three games. Beyond what Nurse has added, and the offence on the blue line from Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson, scoring has been hard to come by.
None of Jenn Gardiner, Michelle Karvinen or Abby Boreen have registered a goal since the Olympic break. Tereza Vanišová, who led Ottawa last season with 15 goals, has only two this season.
While Vancouver played better than the final score suggests against Montreal, the Goldeneyes will have to capitalize on more opportunities to have a hope of staying in the playoff race.
“We could have done a better job of getting in front of [Montreal goaltender] Ann-Renée [Desbiens] for sure,” Nurse said. “You pre-scout a very good goalie and some keys to success are definitely taking away their eyes and creating havoc at the net. I think that’s something that we need to do a better job of.”
The Goldeneyes will take on the Minnesota Frost on CBC at 2 p.m. ET on Saturday, and you can watch the action on CBC TV or CBC Gem.
Quiet trade deadline as uncertainty looms
In Seattle, GM Meghan Turner made headlines last month by bringing in Theresa Schafzahl from Boston in exchange for Jessie Eldridge.
The Torrent have been decimated by injuries, with Olympic gold medallist, Hannah Bilka, out for the season, and captain Hilary Knight only just now returning to the lineup. Why trade a top scorer in Eldridge?
The answer lies in the details of Schafzahl’s game, which Turner is quite familiar with. Before taking the reins in Seattle, she was the assistant GM in Boston, where Schafzahl had played since the league launched in 2024.
Both players were only under contract until the end of this season, so again, the focus is on what a player can bring right now.
Turner felt her team had gotten away from its identity of disciplined play. She thought Schafzahl could help with that.
“She supports her teammates, she goes east to west, committed to winning puck battles, to getting into puck battles,” Turner said. “She’s just a gritty, gritty player and [we] knew that she would support some of our players well and create a little bit more offence, and really light the way where we were lacking in some details.”
The hill is steep for Seattle to climb back into contention, but there’s still plenty to play for. Once a team is eliminated from playoff contention, they begin earning Gold points for each win.
The team with the most Gold points gets the first-overall pick in this year’s entry draft. That’s likely to be Caroline Harvey, the Olympic MVP and winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award for the top NCAA player this past season.
“We want to end on a high note, whatever that looks like,” Turner said.
The Schafzahl-Eldridge trade was one of only three across the league this season. Teams can’t trade draft picks and the uncertainty that comes with potential expansion makes any kind of planning for the future difficult.
Instead, most teams turned to Europe for players who’d stood out in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League (SDHL), which ends its season earlier than the PWHL.
One was former Montreal Victoire forward Gabrielle David, who went to Sweden looking for consistent ice time to help her regain confidence. She put up 42 points in 35 games with SDE HF, good for third in the league.
Her play earned her a spot on Seattle down the stretch, and a chance to prove herself to teams for next season.
The SDHL is the best option right now for players like David, who need playing time to continue to grow. David was a reserve player for Montreal last season, but only got into three games.
“It’s a great opportunity for me to be here in Seattle and they really wanted me, which is a big part confidence wise as well,” David said. “[It’s] just proving that I can play in this league and obviously stay in this league for the future.”
Weathering the storm in Montreal
David’s former team, Montreal, became the second club to lock up a playoff spot in its win over Vancouver on Thursday, after the Boston Fleet clinched earlier in the week.
It’s the third consecutive season that Montreal will be in the playoffs, but this might be the most impressive campaign yet because of how the team has done it.
The Victoire have earned points in a league-record 12 straight games, despite injuries to some of the team’s top players. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin remains on the long-term injured reserve, while defender Erin Ambrose played her first game since the Olympic break on Thursday.
They’ve won by committee this season, and with some help from a stellar campaign from Desbiens, who earned her sixth shutout of the season with the win over Vancouver.
Players like Hayley Scamurra and Catherine Dubois have been elevated higher in the lineup and taken on new roles, with success.
Montreal secures a place in the Walter Cup Playoffs for the third straight year with a 3-0 victory over Vancouver.
But the biggest anchor for the Victoire has been Laura Stacey, whose leadership has been even more important in the absence of Poulin and Ambrose.
Between her forechecking and work ethic, head coach Cheverie said Stacey makes everyone she plays with better.
“She’s certainly stepped up on the ice, and she continues to help lead this group through the adversity that we’re currently facing,” Cheverie said.
In past seasons, the Victoire might not have been able to withstand stretches without key players, especially Poulin.
This season, the depth has made the difference. But so has the willingness from Cheverie and her staff to mix and match players, so the team is ready to adapt to anything thrown its way.
“It just seems like whoever we put on the ice and put in the lineup, they’re able to get it done for us,” Cheverie said.
The Battle of Ontario
Minnesota seems destined to clinch the third playoff spot, which leaves one last spot up for grabs.
Going into the weekend’s action, Toronto (34 points) owns that spot. Ottawa is only one point behind, with a game in hand, followed by New York (29 points) and Vancouver (27 points).
Toronto defeats Ottawa 2-1 at Scotiabank Saddledome in Calgary for a PWHL Takeover Tour game. The Sceptres move into fourth place in the standings, while the Charge drop to 5th place but are one point behind Toronto and have a game in hand.
The Sceptres earned a huge three points in a 2-1 win over the Charge on Thursday in Calgary, a victory that came after shutting down four Ottawa power play opportunities.
“Just in the key moments of the game, the execution wasn’t where it needed to be,” Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner said.
Toronto and Ottawa will play head-to-head twice more, including a game on April 25, the final day of the regular season.
Every team in the league is in action that day, and for the second year in a row, everything could come down to one final, chaotic day.
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