PDRD goes through all the game action in the PWHL over the previous week (March 10 to 16, 2025). Take a look at the current standings, playoff picture, and other news around the league, while throwing in some fun stats and tidbits along the way.

Tuesday, March 11: Minnesota Frost 2, Ottawa Charge 3

The Ottawa Charge cruised through the first period, allowing just two shots and pulling ahead courtesy of captain Brianne Jenner poking in a rebound on the woman advantage. It’s an encouraging sign for Ottawa’s struggling power play and for Jenner herself, who hasn’t looked like the same player that led the team in scoring last season.

The Frost kicked it up a notch in the second period, but goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer held strong to allow the Charge to break through again with a couple of overdue firsts. Natalie Snodgrass stole the puck off prolific defender Claire Thompson and gifted linemate Alexa Vasko a wide open net with a nifty cross-seam pass for the 2–0 lead. It was Vasko’s first goal and Snodgrass’ first point of the season, and they almost couldn’t have picked a better time for it.

Then came the third period, where the Frost’s cursory comeback was clouded by controversy and concern from the Charge contingent. Minnesota had been pressing for the majority of the final frame, and a solid offensive zone shift by hot hand Brooke McQuigge and the newly-elevated Claire Butorac was finished off by star centre Taylor Heise’s long distance wrist shot. Attention quickly turned to Maschmeyer, though, as she appeared to tweak something on the play that broke her shutout and had to be helped off the ice.

For the second consecutive game, Gwyneth Philips entered in relief for Ottawa, but unlike last time she was tasked with holding onto a late one-goal lead. Just two minutes later, another shot from distance beat a Charge netminder, but this one was emphatically waved off by the official to the left of Philips. Michela Cava had been directed into the Ottawa crease on the play and was in the midst of exiting as Thompson’s floater sailed past a scrambling Philips. This prompted an eight-minute-long goaltender interference review, eventually overturning the call on the ice and pulling Minnesota even at 2–2, as the ever-lively TD Place crowd voiced their displeasure.

Things would go from bad to worse for the Charge, as Tereza Vanišová took down Cava and headed to the penalty box with a late tripping call. Then, Alexa Vasko would somehow pick an even better time.

Wednesday, March 12: Montréal Victoire 2, New York Sirens 3 (OT)

In a matchup between first and worst in the PWHL, the Sirens certainly didn’t come out of the gate looking like the latter. They took full control for the first ten minutes, putting a puck past Ann-Renée Desbiens before the Victoire had even recorded a shot. Abby Roque deflected in a Jaime Bourbonnais point shot for her fifth of the year and a well-deserved 1–0 New York lead.

Montréal finally landed their first shot on Corinne Schroeder 12:05 into the game courtesy of a Laura Stacey net drive, but they remained on their heels for the remainder of the period. In addition to a Dara Greig high-sticking call that would leave the Victoire shorthanded going into intermission, the Sirens were retroactively awarded a penalty shot as Kristin O’Neill closed her hand on the puck in her own goal crease amidst a scramble. Montréal would dodge this bullet, though, as Elizabeth Giguère sent her uncontested attempt over the net.

The Victoire responded to New York’s strong start to the first period with one of their own in the second. They comfortably killed the remainder of the Greig penalty, and pulled even soon after. Sirens captain Micah Zandee-Hart bobbled a D-to-D pass leading to two clean shots from Lina Ljungblom, and two rebounds off Schroeder. Maureen Murphy fought off a backchecking Elle Hartje to shovel the third attempt into the net and tie the game at one, bumping a seven-game pointless drought for the forward.

Montréal generated momentum from the goal, accounting for 10 of the first 11 combined shots in the middle frame, but the Sirens would score the next one against the run of play. Bourbonnais made a strong play to hold the puck in the zone before changing in favour of Zandee-Hart, who was able to immediately step into a point shot thanks to the second period bench configuration. Paetyn Levis’ high slot deflection forced a rebound out of Desbiens and was quickly capitalized upon by Sarah Fillier, regaining the advantage for New York and pulling her back into a tie for the league scoring lead.

Fillier’s impact on the game would only grow in the third period, though this time it would prove costly to her team. She was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for a crosscheck to the head of reigning Defender of the Year Erin Ambrose after a lengthy review. Ambrose would exact revenge just under halfway through the five minute power play, teeing up fellow blueliner Kati Tabin for her third goal in her last five games and a 2–2 tie. The Sirens would manage to kill off the remainder of the penalty, but the damage was done, and the two teams would ultimately require overtime.

Just like the third, a costly penalty would become the story of the extra frame. O’Neill, who has struggled immensely this season as the Victoire’s second line centre, reversed the puck back into the Montréal defensive zone despite minimal pressure from the three skaters in teal. As Gabby Rosenthal eventually pursued her, O’Neill flubbed the breakout pass, losing the puck to the Sirens rookie and taking a slash at her hands in plain view of the referee.

Power play, New York.

Once again, Fillier’s earlier infraction loomed large as the Sirens would be without their co-leader in power play goals, but the group of Roque, Alex Carpenter, Jessie Eldridge, and Maja Nylén Persson proved more than capable. A give-and-go between Carpenter and Nylén Persson allowed the Swedish defender space to laser a wrister past Desbiens’ blocker, ending the New York Sirens’ nine-game losing skid with a satisfying ping of the post.

Nat’s Stat: Jessie Eldridge served Sarah Fillier’s major penalty and took two minors of her own, the second of which she was forced to wait longer than two minutes due to Rule 86.3 regarding coincidental minor penalties continuing into overtime. In all, Eldridge spent 9:28 of game time in the penalty box, the most of any individual player in a game this season excluding ejections.

Saturday, March 15: Boston Fleet 5, Ottawa Charge 2

Boston and Ottawa met for the first time since their instant classic back in February, highlighted by the league’s first proper fight between Vanišová and Jill Saulnier. It would be Vanišová’s Charge who put together a better start, drawing the game’s first two penalties and landing five shots to the Fleet’s none in the process, not to mention a post for Vasko. Boston began to push back as the period went on, but their best chance on a two-on-one between Susanna Tapani and Loren Gabel was denied by Philips, starting this game for Ottawa in lieu of the injured Maschmeyer.

The opening period would end scoreless and the Fleet would continue the momentum into the next, breaking through after a Vanišová hip check left the Charge shorthanded. Rookie Shay Maloney threaded a behind-the-back pass to captain Hilary Knight in the slot, and while her attempt found the crossbar, it put Philips out of position enough for Alina Müller to have an easy tap-in behind her former teammate at Northeastern University.

Müller would have the game’s next best chance on a breakaway but flubbed it, opening the door for, of course, Vanišová with a breakaway of her own. With time winding down in the period, she got a stick on a Savolainen breakout pass and had the speed to blow by the Fleet defence pair of Megan Keller and Sidney Morin. Aerin Frankel, yet another Northeastern product, had some uncharacteristically shaky moments leaving the net to play the puck in the game, and this would stand as the worst of them. Vanišová beat her to the loose puck, stepped around her and deposited the puck with just two-tenths of a second remaining as the goaltender slid out of frame behind the Czech forward with a flair for the dramatic.

Many teams would be fazed by conceding a goal that late in a period, but not the Fleet, as they came out of the dressing room and took over the game. First, Theresa Schafzahl would deflect in an Emily Brown point shot for the 2–1 lead just 2:42 in.

Next, just as Vanišová made her mark on the contest in the second, her combatant would do so in the third. Saulnier had two partial breakaways flying down her off-wing, the first ending in a crash into the boards courtesy of a solid hit by Savolainen, and the second ending in a crash into Philips. Later, she kicked a puck up past the Charge defence to Knight, who calmly went five-hole on the breakaway to extend the Fleet’s lead. Saulnier would then get on the board herself, sealing the game into an empty net following a give-and-go with Knight, who with a three-point performance would take sole possession of the league scoring lead for the first time this season.

Ottawa Coach Carla McLeod decided to pull Philips once more, but a missed pass by Aneta Tejralová and a giveaway by Danielle Serdachny would allow Lexie Adzija to net her first against the team that drafted her. The unexpected burst of scoring continued with Snodgrass whacking a rebound past Frankel to add her first goal to go along with last game’s first point, but it would be too little, too late for Ottawa. The Boston Fleet took the game by a score of 5–2, boosting their playoff chances and dealing a blow to the Charge’s own in the process.

Nat’s Stat: Four of Theresa Schafzahl’s five career goals have given the Fleet the lead in a previously tied game. This includes the first goal in Boston’s history last season, and the opening marker against the Charge in their previous meeting. 

Sunday, March 16: Minnesota Frost 1, New York Sirens 4 (Takeover Tour Stop #8)

A year to the day of their previous visit, the PWHL returned to Detroit, Michigan for the penultimate stop on their Takeover Tour. Little Caesars Arena was treated to a shootout between Boston and Ottawa last year, and welcomed two new teams in the Frost and Sirens for this go-round. The game would be a homecoming for Minnesota’s Mellissa Channell-Watkins and New York’s Taylor Girard, Roque, and especially Hartje, whose first impression with the league was brimming with hometown pride.

New York started strong for the second straight game, creating a number of dangerous chances, not the least of which was a shot off the rush by Girard that glanced off Nicole Hensley’s blocker and then the post. The Frost held on, though, and as soon as they were given an inch they capitalized. Grace Zumwinkle blasted a one-timer past Schroeder right off the draw on the power play, a goal so soon after a TV time-out that even the broadcast wasn’t ready for it. The goal was the reigning Rookie of the Year’s fourth of the season and first since she netted two on December 19, with a little over a month out of the lineup due to injury in between.

Back at even strength, the teams picked up trading chances where they left off, and it was the Sirens’ turn to take advantage of their opportunities. After the Frost iced the puck twice in a row, a broken play off the face-off would end up on the stick of Bourbonnais, who had crept down from the point in perfect position to lift the puck over Hensley’s glove hand. Not five minutes later, Fillier would send a cross-crease pass to Levis, who didn’t have much of an angle but still managed to slide it five-hole on the Minnesota goaltender. Perhaps not the plays they expected to score on, given the quality of their chances earlier in the period, but New York would nonetheless take a 2–1 lead into the dressing room.

The Sirens’ momentum carried into the second period, aided by some unlikely sources. Star defender Ella Shelton was unavailable for this game, replaced by the newly acquired Lauren Bernard, a fourth-round pick of the Toronto Sceptres who was signed off their reserve list. Bernard had already registered a secondary assist on the Levis goal, and she’d factor in on another just over three minutes into the second. Her point shot hit the stick of Butorac, knocking it out of her hands and sending the puck into the corner. Brooke Hobson pinched down to retrieve it and sent it in front to Eldridge, who deflected it off Hensley’s mask and into the net. Getting contributions from the third pair of Hobson and Bernard was a massive help for New York, especially as their blueline appeared to take another hit in this game after overtime hero Nylén Persson exited partway through the period and did not return.

The scoring would begin to slow down as both goalies settled in, and Schroeder especially had to be sharp with the team in front of her starting to get into penalty trouble. Two quick calls to start the third gave Minnesota 1:18 of a five-on-three advantage, but the Sirens weathered the storm, in large part thanks to the performance of Schroeder and a well-timed block from Bourbonnais.

Eventually, New York put the game away on a Fillier empty-netter, her 25^th point of the season marking the third time the PWHL scoring lead would change hands this week. Building off of their inspired performance against Montréal on Wednesday, the Sirens would leave Detroit victorious, by a score of 4–1.

Nat’s Stat: The Detroit Tigers batted .750 on these spellings.

Standings synopsis

1. Montréal Victoire (10–6–2–5, .638, 44 pts)
2. Boston Fleet (8–5–4–6, .551, 38 pts)
3. Toronto Sceptres (9–2–5–7, .522, 36 pts)
4. Minnesota Frost (7–5–4–9, .467, 35 pts)
5. Ottawa Charge (8-1-4–10, .435, 30 pts)
6. New York Sirens (5-4-4–10, .391, 27 pts)

Despite no regulation wins in their last five, the Victoire maintain a solid lead in first place and draw closer to becoming the first team to clinch a playoff spot.

The Fleet jump the idle Sceptres with their win over the Charge, while the Frost sit in a precarious position after dropping both of their games this week. They’ve played two more games than every other team in the PWHL, meaning that the Charge could leapfrog them for the final playoff berth with their games in hand.

Don’t count out the Sirens, though, as a five-point week has them just a regulation win’s worth out of fifth place.

News and notes around the league

The single trade deadline deal

The PWHL Trade Deadline came and went with just a single transaction made: The Montréal Victoire sent defender Anna Kjellbin to the Toronto Sceptres in exchange for forward Kaitlin Willoughby. Kjellbin had fallen out of favour with Victoire Coach Kori Cheverie amidst early season struggles coupled with the emergence of fellow 2024 draftee Anna Wilgren, and routinely found herself on the outs with Dominika Lásková recovering from injury.

Willoughby has gone pointless through twenty games this season, and with Sarah Nurse’s return to the lineup imminent she appeared poised to fall to 15th on Toronto’s forward depth chart.

The trade allows both players to move to a team that could better utilize them, as the Sceptres’ defensive depth took a hit from the Sirens poaching Bernard, while the Victoire’s bottom-six has been a point of concern after injuries to Alexandra Labelle and Catherine Dubois. Toronto likely ends up gleaning more upside from the deal than Montréal, but with it, each team addressed a need without subtracting from the core of their roster.

Ottawa Charge place Maschmeyer on LTIR

Maschmeyer’s injury proved serious enough for the Charge to place her on long-term injured reserve. Ottawa is optimistic that she’ll return before the end of the season, but with the league’s roster freeze coming into effect last week, they took no chances on proceeding with only Philips and third-string Logan Angers on the active roster.

In a corresponding move, the Charge signed Lucy Morgan to a Standard Player Agreement off of Minnesota’s reserve list. Morgan got into one game with the Frost this season, stopping 29 of 34 shots behind a lineup decimated by injury, illness, and supplemental discipline.

While Maschmeyer’s absence is a hit to the Charge’s playoff hopes, she had posted an .873 SV% in her last seven appearances compared to a .938 in her first 11, and with Philips’ impressive resume behind her it’s far from an insurmountable task.

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Photos from PWHL, @PWHL_Boston, @PWHL_Minnesota, @PWHL_Montreal, @PWHL_Ottawa, @PWHL_NewYork, and @PWHL_Toronto