Her Puck Perspective: Weekly Recap December 29th, 2025 – More Takeover Tour Games and the Charge Are Heating Up

Another fun week of hockey in the books! We had 2 more Takeover Tour games, as well as a well attended game at the Bell Centre. We also saw the Charge continue their comeback and winning ways this week. Here are the highlights from the week.

PWHL Games

Charge @ Sceptres

• Final Score: Charge 4, Sceptres 3 (OT)
• Attendance: 8,108
• Thoughts: This was the ultimate comeback game for the Charge. After an OT win in their last game over the Frost, it looked like the Charge were taking a step back, as the Sceptres got out to a 3-0 lead with goals from Maggie Connors and Daryl Watts in the 1st period, and Ella Shelton in the 2nd period. After that, the Charge responded, scoring their first goal of the game less than 20 seconds after Toronto’s 3rd goal, and they just kept coming after that. Goals by Rebecca Leslie and Gabbie Hughes in the 2nd period meant that they were down by just 1 going into the 3rd. Brooke Hobson scored in the 3rd period to tie the game, and Rebecca Leslie won it for the charge in OT. This was a huge response game for the Charge, who need standings points any way they can get them after digging themselves a big hole with a lot of regulation losses early in the season. This team has definitely had some distractions, most notably the cancer diagnosis of their beloved head coach, but they seem to be finding their way with a couple of big OT wins, and it will be interesting to see how they continue to build on this. A matchup against the Fleet in their next game will tell the tale of how they will attempt to hold onto any momentum.

Victoire @ Torrent

• Final Score: Torrent 2, Victoire 1
• Attendance: 10,276
• Thoughts: The Victoire outshot the Torrent pretty solidly in this game, with shots on goal ending at 38-23 in the Victoire’s favor, but Torrent goalie Hannah Murphy stood tall and is looking like a great goalie choice for the Torrent. The Victoire started off the scoring in this one, with Abby Roque’s goal in the 1st period, but the Torrent answered with goals early in the 2nd and 3rd periods, by Alex Carpenter and Julia Gosling respectively, and played tough the rest of the way to earn the victory. The Victoire outshot the Torrent 15-3 in the 3rd period, so there was plenty of push from them when they got behind in the game, but the Torrent and especially Hannah Murphy made sure none of those opportunities found the back of the net. The Torrent are definitely starting to find their footing and look like a more cohesive and complete team, which only bodes poorly for the rest of the teams.

Fleet @ Charge

• Final Score: Charge 3, Fleet 2 (SO)
• Attendance: 8,497
• Thoughts: The Charge have really become the comeback kids the last week or so, with their third straight OT or SO win, all of which they had to come from behind in to force OT. The Fleet outshot the Charge 15-8 in the first period, but the Charge took the first lead of this game with a 1st period goal from Stephanie Markowski. Boston answered with 2 goals in the 2nd period, from Olivia Mobley and Haley Winn’s first PWHL goal. The Charge answered late in the 3rd period off a fantastic effort and finish by Fanuza Kadirova. OT and the shootout were incredibly entertaining, mostly thanks to 2 of the best current goalies in the world facing off against each other in Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Philips. The shootout went 8 rounds, and the goalies made some great saves and forced the shooters to make even better moves to beat them. Brianne Jenner was the hero for the Charge, scoring in her last 2 shootout attempts to give them the win. The Fleet looked strong in this game, and the Charge are really starting to come on and improve their game.

Sceptres @ Victoire
(Battle at the Top game at the Bell Centre in Montréal)

• Final Score: Sceptres 2, Victoire 1
• Attendance: 18,107
• Thoughts: In front of the biggest crowd of the PWHL season so far, this was more of a defensive matchup. The Sceptres opened the scoring with a goal from Jesse Compher in the 1st period, and Abby Roque answered for the Victoire and tied the game in the 2nd period before Daryl Watts scored later in the 2nd period in what would turn out to be the game-winning goal. The game got a bit rough in the 2nd, with 3 roughing penalties and 4 total penalties called in that period, but the goalies stood tall in this game and the Sceptres earned a hard fought victory in front of a large and loud crowd at the Bell Centre.

Frost @ Goldeneyes
(Takeover Tour game at Rogers Place, Edmonton, AB)

• Final Score: Frost 2, Goldeneyes 1 (OT)
• Attendance: 10,264
• Thoughts: This was a pretty penalty heavy game, with the Goldeneyes being called for 4 penalties in the 1st period alone. The Frost only converted on one of those 1st period power plays, but it was early in the game on a great shot for the first PWHL goal for Abby Hustler. Izzy Daniel scored for the Goldeneyes just 2 minutes later, still early in the 1st period, and that would be all of the scoring in this game until OT. Both teams were ready to go at the start of this game, with an early goal for each team and 14 shots apiece in the 1st period. Things slowed down a bit in the 2nd and 3rd periods, with some more back and forth action and times of dominance for each team at points in the game. The Goldeneyes overall were the stronger team in the 2nd period, and the Frost were stronger overall in the 3rd, but neither team could find a way past the goalies in this game, so we headed to OT. Taylor Heise finally scored her first goal of the season on a beauty of a shot to win the game for the Frost in OT. Both teams were seeing themselves slipping in the standings recently, so standings points were needed by both teams, but both could have benefited from the full 3 standings points, which of course didn’t happen since the game went to OT.

Torrent @ Sirens
(Takeover Tour game at American Airlines Center, Dallas, TX)

• Final Score: Sirens 4, Torrent 3
• Attendance: 8,514
• Thoughts: The crowd in Dallas was treated to an entertaining, back to back game! They got to see not only Casey O’Brien’s first PWHL goal, but she ended up with a hat trick in the game. The Torrent took the first lead of the game in the 1st period, but the game was back and forth from that point forward, with goal scoring going back and forth until the Sirens scored the last 2 goals of the game in the 3rd period to secure the win. There were a lot of 1st goals of the season scored in this one, with every single goal scorer notching their first of the season (and then O’Brien also getting her 2nd and 3rd of the season. The other Sirens goal was scored by Maddi Wheeler, and the Torrent saw goals from Danielle Serdachny, Mikyla Grant-Mentis, and Lexie Adzija. The Sirens needed this win after a bit of a losing streak, and it will be interesting to see how they play coming out of this exciting game.

Final Thoughts

As a reminder, with New Year’s coming up this week, the only blog posts you’ll see from me this week will be my usual PWHL game recaps. Everything else will pick back up in early January once we’re all out of the holiday haze.

If you want to stay connected in the meantime, I’ll be sharing a few fun, lighthearted posts over on Instagram — nothing heavy, just some festive women’s hockey energy to close out the year. You can follow along at @herpuckperspective.

Thanks for being here, and happy holidays to you and yours.