NEW YORK AND TORONTO – A closer look at highlights on and off the ice from around the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) heading into the playoffs.
MATCHUPS SET FOR PWHL PLAYOFFS
The 2025 PWHL Playoffs, presented by SharkNinja, will feature the league’s top four teams competing in best-of-five semifinals beginning Wednesday. The first-place Montréal Victoire earned the opportunity to select their opponent and will face the third-place Ottawa Charge in the league’s first-ever all-Canadian playoff matchup. The second-place Toronto Sceptres will face the fourth-place Minnesota Frost in a rematch of last season’s semifinal. The Frost are the defending Walter Cup champions. Montréal won the season series against Ottawa, 11-7 in points by virtue of a 3-1-0-2 record, while Minnesota won the season series over Toronto, 11-7 in points with a head-to-head record of 2-2-1-1. Click here to see final PWHL standings and here for the full schedule.
CHARGE AND FROST CLINCH IN HISTORIC FASHION
For the first time in PWHL history, two teams clinched playoff berths with wins on the final day of the regular season Saturday. For Ottawa, Kateřina Mrázová scored just the second overtime goal in team history and first-ever on the road to secure a 2-1 victory over Toronto. It marked the 27th game (30%) to be decided beyond regulation this season and 16th in overtime, up from 13 overtime results in the 20 games (28%) to go beyond regulation in the inaugural season. The Charge finished this season with the fewest OT/SO wins in the league with two. Minnesota tied a single-game league record with eight goals and produced the largest margin of victory in league history with an 8-1 win over Boston. This was just the fifth time all season a team scored six or more goals in a single game, with the Frost the only team to do so twice. Click here to see all PWHL scores.
REGULAR SEASON ATTENDANCE INCREASED BY 50 PERCENT
The 2024-25 PWHL regular season saw a total attendance of 653,415 across 90 games, representing an increase of 50 percent over the inaugural season attendance of 392,259 in 72 games. The league’s average attendance per game went from 5,448 up to 7,260, representing a 29 percent increase.
NEW RECORDS
Here’s a look back at some of the new benchmarks established by players this season:
• Sarah Fillier (NY) and Hilary Knight (BOS) recorded the most points in a season (29) and are co-recipients of the league’s Points Leader award.
• Marie-Philip Poulin leads the league in career points (49) and career goals (29).
• Fillier and Renata Fast (TOR) recorded the most assists in a season (16).
• Erin Ambrose (MTL) leads the league in career assists (27).
• Fillier recorded the most points (29), goals (13) and assists (16) by a rookie in a season.
• Fast and Sophie Jaques (MIN) recorded the most points by a defender (22).
• Ella Shelton (NY) recorded the most goals by a defender (8) and leads the position in career goals (15) and career points (37).
• Cayla Barnes (MTL) recorded the most points (13) and assists (11) by a rookie defender.
• Anna Wilgren (MTL) recorded the most goals by a rookie defender (3).
• Fast and Hannah Miller (TOR) recorded the most power play points (13).
• Fast recorded the most power play assists (11).
• Poulin (MTL) set new records for plus-minus (+17), game-winning goals (6), face-off attempts and wins (669/403), and shootout goals (5).
• Laura Stacey (MTL) recorded the most shots on goal in a season (112).
• Susanna Tapani (BOS) was one of 52 players to play in 30 games this season but stands alone with the most career games (56).
• Corinne Schroeder (NY) recorded the most shutouts in a season (4) and leads the category all-time (5).
• Aerin Frankel (BOS) recorded the most saves (591) and minutes played (1342:18).
• Kristen Campbell (TOR) leads the league in career wins (25).
• Ann-Renée Desbiens (MTL) leads the league in career goals-against-average (2.04).
• Elaine Chuli (MTL) leads the league in career save percentage (.929).
• Gwyneth Philips (OTT) set new rookie records for wins (8), shutouts (2), GAA (2.11), SV% (.919).
PWHL INTRODUCES SEATTLE
Last Wednesday, the PWHL announced Seattle as its second expansion market for the 2025-26 season, joining Vancouver to bring the league up to eight teams with a new geographical footprint in the Pacific Northwest. “Welcome to the family, PWHL Seattle,” was the official greeting from Skylar Diggins of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm at the introductory press conference at Climate Pledge Arena where the team will call home. For more coverage of the news, click here for an interview on NHL Network’s NHL Now program with Amy Scheer, PWHL Executive Vice President of Business Operations, and here for an interview with Jayna Hefford, PWHL Executive Vice President of Hockey Operations, on TSN’s SportsCentre. See the full press conference here and visit the PWHL Seattle website for information about tickets and team gear.
JACKSON EARNS FIRST CAREER WIN
Last Tuesday night, Toronto’s Carly ‘CJ’ Jackson stopped 25 of 26 shots plus all four shootout attempts faced in a 2-1 victory over New York. With the win, Jackson became the first goaltender in PWHL history to earn a shootout victory in their first career start, and just the second netminder this season to win their first career start following Boston’s Klára Peslarová.
SHUTOUT FOR HENSLEY
Minnesota’s Nicole Hensley turned aside all 24 shots faced in Wednesday’s 3-0 victory in Ottawa to record her first shutout of the season and second of her career. This season, seven goaltenders combined for 12 shutouts across 90 games (13.3%), one more than the 11 shutouts that seven netminders posted during the inaugural season’s 72 games (15.3%). New York led the league with five shutouts this season, followed by Minnesota (3), and both Boston (2) and Ottawa (2). All six teams recorded at least one shutout last season.
CAMPBELL SURPASSES 1,000 SAVES
On Saturday afternoon, Toronto’s Kristen Campbell made 23 saves to bring her career total to 1,010. She became the fourth goaltender in PWHL history to surpass the regular-season milestone, joining Boston’s Aerin Frankel (1,046), New York’s Corinne Schroeder (1,005) and Ottawa’s Emerance Maschmeyer (1,001).
POULIN SCORES QUICKEST GOAL
Montréal captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored just 11 seconds into Saturday’s action against New York, setting a new PWHL record for the quickest goal in history. Her tally was one of four scored during the first minute of play this season and beat the previous record of 21 seconds by Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle against the Sirens on Dec. 1. Victoire defender Kati Tabin (36 seconds on Mar. 1) and Charge forward Shiann Darkangelo (45 seconds on Apr. 2) hold the season’s next quickest goals.
DIGIROLAMO AND HYMLÁROVÁ SCORE FIRST CAREER GOALS
The final day of the regular season produced a pair of first career goals. Both milestone markers were tallied between Minnesota and Boston on Saturday, first by Fleet defender Jessica DiGirolamo then by Frost rookie Klára Hymlárová. DiGirolamo’s goal came in her 54th career game and ended the longest active streak by a player without scoring. Hymlárová scored on her 21st shot in her 29th career game. Throughout this season, there were 105 different goal scorers, including 22 rookies.
OFFICIATING TEAM SELECTED FOR PLAYOFFS
A total of 16 referees and 16 linespersons have been selected for the PWHL Playoffs. Among the referees, eight were also selected for the league’s inaugural postseason (Grace Barlow, Andrew Bell, Alexandra Clarke, Jared Cummins, David Elford, Jack Hennigan, Jake Kamrass, Elizabeth Mantha), and eight have been selected for their first time (Marie-Ève Couture, Sydney Harris, Chad Ingalls, Tatu Kunto, Amy Martin, Shauna Neary, Laura Schmidlein, Amanda Tassoni). On the lines, ten return for a second straight playoffs (Antoine Bujold-Roux, Patrick Dapuzzo, Jérémy Faucher, Laura Gutauskas, Anthony Lapointe, Dustin McCrank, Greg Offerman, Shawn Oliver, Kirsten Welsh, Erin Zach), and six can make their playoff debuts (Ali Beres, Sarah Buckner, Jessica Chartrand, TJ Dockery, Justine Todd, Sophie Thomson). A team of six referees and six linespersons will be selected for the PWHL Finals.
THIS WEEK’S SCHEDULE
Minnesota will begin their defense of the Walter Cup on the road Wednesday when they take on Toronto in Game 1 at Coca-Cola Coliseum. Ottawa will make their playoff debut on Thursday when they visit Montréal for Game 1 at Place Bell. The first five of the possible 10 games across both semifinal series will be played this week.
Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Game 1: Minnesota at Toronto (Coca-Cola Coliseum) at 7 p.m. ET
Prime Video (Canada), FanDuel Sports Network North
Thursday, May 8, 2025
Game 1: Ottawa at Montréal (Place Bell) at 7 p.m. ET
TSN 1/5, RDS
Friday, May 9, 2025
Game 2: Minnesota at Toronto (Coca-Cola Coliseum) at 7 p.m. ET
Prime Video (Canada), FanDuel Sports Network North
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Game 2: Ottawa at Montréal (Place Bell) at 2 p.m. ET
TSN 1, RDS
Sunday, May 11, 2025
Game 3: Toronto at Minnesota (Xcel Energy Center) at 6 p.m. ET
Prime Video (Canada), FanDuel Sports Network North
Click here for the full schedule.
