Hockey

Claire Watkins | Just Women’s Sports

The USA skated to victory on Sunday, taking down archrival Canada in a 4-3 overtime thriller to earn the team’s 11th IIHF Women’s World Championship title.

The US is now closing in on Canada’s record 13 World Championship wins, setting the tone in the run-up to next year’s Winter Olympics as North America’s PWHL showcased its growing influence on the international stage.

After Canada equalized the second-period goals from US defender Caroline Harvey and forward Abbey Murphy — the potential No. 1 pick in June’s 2025 PWHL Draft — the game’s third period saw Team USA lose starting goaltender Aerin Frankel to injury.

Backup goalie and IIHF World Championship debutant Gwyneth Philips stepped in, seeing the USA to a back-and-forth 3-3 tie at the end of regulation.

Philips’s 17 saves — including 10 in overtime — allowed US forward and current Penn State junior Tessa Janecke to play hero, with the 20-year-old capitalizing on a turnover by tapping in a golden goal with three minutes left in the first overtime period.

“Just shows how strong we are as a group and how much we can persevere through anything,” Janecke said afterwards. “I wouldn’t want to do it with any other group.”

The tournament itself also proved to be a success, setting a new IIHF Women’s World Championship attendance record as 122,331 total fans took in the games in Czechia.

“I think this is a watershed moment for women’s hockey, and it’s really exciting to be a part of,” said US captain Hilary Knight after earning her 10th Worlds gold medal.

In a shifting hockey landscape, the USA-Canada rivalry is only becoming more intense — and the looming 2026 Olympics will provide yet another chance to steal the sport’s global spotlight.

By: Dee Lab | Just Women’s Sports

Behind a string of stellar performances, PWHL standouts Marie-Philip Poulin (Montréal), Corinne Schroeder (New York), and Sidney Morin (Boston) emerged as Monday’s Stars of the Week.

After scoring two goals — including the superhero-style game-winner — in Wednesday’s sold-out Takeover Tour win, Victoire captain Poulin registered an assist in front a record-breaking Denver crowd on Sunday to claim a three-point week.

Saturday belonged to Fleet defender Morin, who recorded a career-high five shots and notched both goals in Boston’s 2-1 overtime win over Ottawa, doubling her single-goal scoring record last season.

The puck stops with Sirens goalie Corinne Schroeder

Sirens goaltender Schroeder made PWHL history on Sunday, becoming the first-ever goalie to record back-to-back regular-season shutouts.

New York’s 1-0 victory over Toronto also made a mark, becoming the PWHL’s first-ever scoreless game in regulation before New York’s Jessie Eldridge found the back of the net in overtime.

Schroeder, who tops the league in average goals against (1.86) while sharing the lead in wins (5) and save percentage (0.935), hasn’t conceded a goal in over 156 minutes of play.

“I think Schroeder has been our number one goalie for a long time,” said Sirens coach Greg Fargo after the game. “She’s been demonstrating the level of her play since day one, but there’s a calmness to her game and a competitiveness that we really like right now.”https://www.instagram.com/p/DExpHbbyW5o/embed/captioned/?cr=1&v=14&wp=1080&rd=https%3A%2F%2Fjustwomenssports.com&rp=%2Freads%2Fpwhl-stars-poulin-schroeder-morin-emerge-how-to-watch-pro-womens-hock%2F#%7B%22ci%22%3A0%2C%22os%22%3A282.3999999910593%2C%22ls%22%3A159.29999999701977%2C%22le%22%3A159.29999999701977%7D

How to watch PWHL games this week

While teams jockey for points one-third of the way through the PWHL’s second season, individual athletes are separating themselves from the pack by tearing up the stat sheet.

The PWHL’s stars are back on the ice in midweek action. First, the Toronto Sceptres visit the Ottawa Charge on Tuesday at 7 PM ET.

Then, Schroeder will try to add a third shutout to her record-setting goaltending streak when the New York Sirens host the league-leading Minnesota Frost at 7 PM ET on Wednesday.

Both games will stream live on YouTube.

Ian Kennedy | The hockey News

Women and girls have historically been excluded from hockey. For more than a century, women have been barred from rinks, kicked off teams, and forced out of leagues. Girls have been given leftover ice times in the middle of the night, or early hours; and they’ve worn equipment not made for their bodies, faced ridicule and discrimination, and despite it all, continued to play the game of hockey.

The barriers are obvious, and it’s why Hockey Canada and a special steering committee aimed at solving these problems for women and girls, have released the first phase of their plan, a paper titled “building the future of women’s and girls’ hockey.”

Leading the charge is three-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time World Champion Gillian Apps. Apps is a member of Hockey Canada’s new board of directors and the lead of Hockey Canada’s Women’s and Girls’ Steering Committee.

Apps knows change has been slow, but feels that the new group, alongside HockeyN Canada are committed to opening opportunities for women and girls.

“It was very clear how Hockey Canada is committed to this,” Apps told The Hockey News.

“It is a testament to say, women and girls hockey matters to everyone involved in this paper, and the steering committee when people were asked to be a part of this, no one hesitated. People truly believe in, ‘how do we make women’s and girls’ hockey in Canada better.’ We have our paper but really trying to understand how Canadians are interacting with the game from coast-to-coast and put strategies in place to try to make it a really great experience, keep women in the game, have new Canadians start hockey and have that be an easy experience. Even for a 30-year-old, 40-year-old woman who has never played hockey before, how can she get involved in a learn to play?”

“It’s an exciting project, it’s an enormous project. We’re trying to get the voice of the country from coast to coast. It’s something that obviously matters a lot to me and something I’m really excited about.”

Apps grew up playing in an all-girls program in Markham-Stouffville, and she recognizes she was one of the lucky ones. She also saw the bulk of her career played without fanfare. After a collegiate career at Dartmouth, which included her first World Championship and Olympic golds, Apps went on to play in the CWHL with the Brampton Thunder.

While the stands would be packed for international tournaments, despite the fact the CWHL features the same national team stars, players, teams, and the league received almost no recognition. It’s why Apps believes visibility in media coverage, and through the PWHL are crucial to the next step for women and girls in hockey.

“Visibility and celebration is a really important thing,” Apps said. “The PWHL for example, for people to be able to watch those games, we’ve been fighting for so long in women’s hockey to be able to just have people in the rinks. I can’t tell you how many times when I was playing in, long ago, the CWHL and we had probably combined between the two teams 20 Olympians on the ice and we were at a rink in Brampton and no one was there except our parents.”

“It’s funny to think it because we were like ‘wow, I’m sure people would love to see this’, and then we’d play at the Air Canada Centre and it would be sold out. It’s juts the visibility and the ability for people to come watch and watch on TV and young girls to watch and young boys to watch.”

Ice time is another recognized gap as organizations have historically allocated ice to boys programs, men’s recreational leagues, and all other user groups before women and gils. Apps also recognizes that a barrier to participation and retention in Ontario will be different than the barriers in Prince Edward Island, or Northern Canada.

That’s why the next step in Hockey Canada’s process, in collaboration with IMI International, is to conduct surveys and interviews with all stakeholders, from parents to players, coaches and staff, and those who have left the game altogether to “try to figure out how we can really come up with strategies that can help people have a better experience and help people stay in hockey,” as Apps says.

The data collection phase, as Apps stated, is important “to have a pulse on underrepresented communities, new Canadians, the BIPOC community, people that have played hockey but then have since quit, understanding ‘why did you leave the game?’ and ‘can we get you back?'”

When they’ve collected the data, Apps and her steering committee, which also includes Jayna Hefford, Angela James, Mary-Kay Messier, Therese Brisson, Kim St. Pierre, Katherine Henderson, Marion Jacko, Allison Sandmeyer-Graves, Pierre Arsenault, Cassie Campbell-Pascall, Debra Gassewitz, Rob Knesaurek, Anne Merklinger, and Brad Morris, will look at developing and applying strategies in partnership with Hockey Canada to enact change.

“We’ll have some time where we’re just in pure data collection mode and then coming together and figuring out what are the insights from that, and really after that it’s the idea of how do we think through these difficult problems and come up with strategies and then put them into place,” Apps Said. How can Hockey Canada put them into place across the country so that we address these barriers…and make people’s experience better.”

In the end, it’s about removing barriers, and creating a better experience that promotes inclusion and lifelong participation in all communities in Canada, that has Apps and Hockey Canada optimistic.

“I hope that it makes peoples love for the game stronger and their experience better. There are always going to be things that are hard…but I think that overall if we can really make women’s and girls hockey across the country for everyone, something that it is more enjoyable than it is today, that is more accessible than it is today, that gives women and girls the opportunity that if you want to be an elite hockey player it’s up to you, that you are given all the resources that you need and you can choose whether you do that or not,” said Apps.

“It’s the idea of making this better, it’s a really hard problem to solve, and some of these barriers in order to fix, it doesn’t hap

By: Katie Manganelli | Just Women’s Sports

The first puck drop for the PWHL is set for Jan. 1 — just five months after the league was announced. But a lot of moving parts need to be secured before play can begin.

On June 29, Los Angeles Dodgers and Chelsea FC owner Mark Walters bought out the previous pro women’s league, the Premier Hockey Federation. And since then, Walters, tennis legend Billie Jean King and multi-sport executive Stan Kasten — investors in the rival Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association — have transformed the previous leagues into a single six-team entity.

And just last week, the league hosted nine preseason contests so coaches could finalize their rosters and get a last look at the competition heading into the inaugural season. 

To add to the whirlwind, the league also plans to make rule changes that differ from rules in the NHL. For example, the PWHL is debating allowing two-minute penalties to continue after the opposing team scores on the power play. Many of the rule changes seem to be targeted at increasing scoring opportunities and action.

“We’re going to have to look at the data and see if it actually created more scoring chances or more goals, which of course I think is the goal,” Jayna Hefford, the PWHL’s senior vice president of hockey operations, told CBC and Radio-Canada.

“We’ll debrief the event and really understand the pros and cons, and see if it makes sense to implement any of them.”

The PWHL is also still assembling its player discipline committee and its collection of referees, both of which must be finalized before the first puck drop. The league plans to use a pool of officials from other organizations, which include the American Hockey League, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey.

As is typical in women’s hockey, body checking isn’t allowed in the PWHL, but the players still want to play a physical game. So expect no shortage of action along the boards or penalties called.

The first regular PWHL season will consist of 24 games, with international breaks included in the schedule so that players can maintain their national team commitments. The four best teams will make the playoffs and will play best-of-five series through the end of the tournament to determine a champion.

Regular-season tickets went on sale this week and, according to Hefford, sales are already out-performing projections. Toronto already has sold out all 12 home games at 2,600-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre.

“We go into this understanding that we’re building a league, we’re launching a league,” Hefford said. “We’re not going to fill every building every night, so we have pretty conservative projections, I would say. But in initial days into ticket sales we’ve exceeded our projections, which is really great news for us.”

The PWHL plans to launch merchandise soon, including replica jerseys, that should be available in arenas and in online stores.

Even before it hosts its first game, Kasten is shocked at how well the league has come together in such a short time. 

“To see it really coming together, I can’t describe it,” Kasten said. “This will be the league with the highest level of skill for women hockey players ever in the history of the world.”

Paul Krotz | ThePWHL

Boston, Minnesota, Montreal, New York, Ottawa, and Toronto are home to first six teams

Player selection process, including draft and free agency guidelines, announced

TORONTO, ON (August 29, 2023) – The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) was officially introduced today with a foundational announcement naming its six markets across Canada and the United States. When the puck drops in January 2024, the world’s best women’s players will compete in Montreal, Ottawa, and Toronto, as well as Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, and the New York City area.

Rosters for the inaugural season will begin forming during an initial free agency period commencing September 1, with the majority of the league’s founding players to be selected during the 2023 PWHL Draft on Sept. 18.

The league is supported financially by business and philanthropic leaders Mark and Kimbra Walter and is led by a Board of Directors that includes sports icon Billie Jean King, sports executive Ilana Kloss, Los Angeles Dodgers President Stan Kasten, and Dodgers Senior Vice President of Business Strategy Royce Cohen.

“On behalf of ownership and our board, I am honored to announce the official name of our new league and to unveil the blueprint for this historic inaugural season. And we are especially proud to be providing this new platform for elite women athletes,” said Kasten. “Our great game has the power to captivate and connect sports fans everywhere, and we are thrilled to plant roots in six of North America’s most passionate hockey markets.”

The 2023-24 PWHL schedule will feature 24 regular season games per team. The full schedule will be announced in the coming months.

“Today, we look ahead to a phenomenal future for the PWHL,” said Jayna Hefford, PWHL Senior Vice President of Hockey Operations. “We have never seen more excitement and demand for women’s sports, and through the launch of this league, the top women’s players in the world will have the opportunity to reach even greater heights.”

The PWHL is in the final stages of securing six General Managers who will be responsible for building team rosters through free agency and the draft. A Player Evaluation Advisory Committee has assessed the eligible player pool as an additional resource for the new GMs. The committee has extensive knowledge in coaching, scouting, and player development with members representing all levels of the women’s game from professional (PWHPA and PHF) to collegiate programs (NCAA and U SPORTS) to international competition (Hockey Canada, USA Hockey, and IIHF).

Initial Free Agency

Prior to the Sept. 18 draft, a 10-day free agency period will occur from Sept. 1-10. Each team can sign three players to Standard Player Agreements. Of note, current or graduating players from NCAA or U SPORTS programs are not eligible for this preliminary free agency period.

Draft Declaration

Any player who is interested in competing in the 2023-24 PWHL season must declare for the draft by Sept. 3. Of note, players with remaining collegiate eligibility are permitted to declare for the draft (in consultation with their campus compliance officers).

Draft Selection Process

Order of selection for the first round of the inaugural draft will be determined by a draft lottery. Subsequent rounds will follow a ‘snake format’ in which, once the round is completed, the following round will be conducted with the teams selecting in the reverse order of the previous round. The inaugural draft will consist of 15 rounds. There will be no draft picks traded until at least the completion of the 2023-24 season.

Post-Draft

Undrafted players become free agents immediately following the draft and may sign a Standard Player Agreement with any team at any point following the draft. Selected players may go unsigned for two years before becoming eligible to enter the draft again. No player can declare for more than two drafts.

Standard Player Agreements

No more than 20 Standard Player Agreements per team are permitted to be executed in advance of 2023-24 Training Camps, which will commence in November. Six players on each team will be signed to three-year SPAs of no less than $80,000 per league year. In 2023-24, up to five players on each team will be signed to two-year SPAs. A player will become a free agent following the termination or end date of a signed SPA.

Key Dates

Sept. 1 – Initial free agency period begins
Sept. 3 – 2023 PWHL Draft declaration deadline
Sept. 10 – Initial free agency period ends
Sept. 18 – 2023 PWHL Draft

Fans can stay connected to the PWHL and register for email updates at thepwhl.com. Follow the new league on all social media platforms @thepwhlofficial plus all six new team accounts @pwhl_boston, @pwhl_minnesota, @pwhl_montreal, @pwhl_newyork, @pwhl_ottawa, and @pwhl_toronto.

Prospective players seeking more information about the draft declaration process may contact hockeyoperations@thepwhl.com.

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Media Contact:
Paul Krotz
PWHL Director of Communications
647-505-8010
paul.krotz@thepwhl.com