Her Puck Perspective: Weekly Recap – January 19, 2026 – 

It was a busy week, with the PWHL schedule including 2 OT games, 1 shootout, a record-setting attendance at the Takeover Tour Game, and the biggest trade in PWHL history. We also saw Team USA win gold at the U18 tournament, the Beanpot semifinals, and another busy week of NCAA hockey as well. Let’s dig into everything that happened!

News/Roster Updates

We had a number of roster updates and other news from the PWHL teams this week, so let’s see what’s been happening.

• Allie Munroe (Toronto Sceptres) is expected to return before the Olympic break. She has been out for a few weeks 
• Dominique Petrie (Minnesota Frost) will miss the rest of the 2025-2026 with a lower body injury. This is a big loss for the Frost, and you have to feel for Petrie, who has been one of the Frost’s best players at times in both of her seasons, but has seen both seasons majorly disrupted by injuries. Best wishes to her for fast healing so that she can be back on the ice next season! 
• It’s looking like the New York Sirens will set a new home attendance record when they play at Madison Square Garden on April 4th. Tickets are selling quickly for this game, so if you want to be in attendance, you better get your tickets soon! 
• In a fun and unique item, the New York Sirens got to ring the closing bell at the Nasdaq Exchange this past week. 
• Boston Fleet’s Alina Müller became the team’s all-time leading scorer with 41 career points with her point in the Fleet’s game this past week.
• The Goldeneyes activated Sarah Nurse off LTIR. This is huge for both the Goldeneyes and Team Canada, as she is truly a difference maker on the ice and will have a huge impact once she has fully recovered from her injury and is back to playing like herself.

Trade News

This was such a big trade that I thought it deserved its own section this week! We saw our first in-season trade of this season (there was one other trade, but it was right before the season started). The trade was between the Ottawa Charge and the Vancouver Goldeneyes.

The Charge acquire Michela Cava (F), Emma Greco (D), and Brooke McQuigge (F) from the Goldeneyes for forwards Mannon McMahon, Anna Meixner and Anna Shokhina.

The running joke is that whichever team has Michela Cava is destined to win the Walter Cup; Cava had won 5 consecutive championships, in the PHF, ZhHL, SDHL, and has been a part of the first 2 Walter Cup winning teams in Minnesota.

This trade will shake up the lineups for both teams, which seems needed for the Goldeneyes for sure. It will be interesting to see how each team reacts and what the new line combinations look like after these changes.

PWHL Games

Charge @ Victoire 

• Final Score: Victoire 2, Charge 1
• Attendance: 7,408
• Thoughts: The Victoire ended the Charge’s 6 game winning streak, while extending their own winning streak to 3 games. They outshot the Charge 31-18 in this game, and continued their strong play overall. All 3 goals in this game were scored in the 1^st period, with Shiann Darkangelo kicking off the scoring for the Victoire, then Jessica DiGirolamo giving the Victoire a 2-0 lead, before Ronja Savolainen scored for the Charge. This was a fairly highly penalized game, with each team being called for 4 minor penalties. Each team had a power play goal, but overall both had strong showings from their penalty kill units as well. Both goalies played well in this game as well, and it was a close game overall. 

Sceptres @ Fleet 

• Final Score: Fleet 2, Sceptres 1
• Attendance: 3,372
• Thoughts: The Fleet just keep rolling. They continue to win a lot of lower scoring games, which isn’t a big surprise with Aerin Frankel in net, but they have the defense and structure to also allow them to thrive in these close games. This was a highly penalized game, with the Sceptres taking a total of 6 minor penalties, and 3 by the Fleet. All of the goals were at even strength, so the Sceptres did a great job on the penalty kill. Alina Müller opened scoring for the Fleet in the 2^nd period, and Shay Maloney extended the Fleet’s lead in the 3^rd period. The Sceptres got within 1 goal late in the 3^rd on a goal from Emma Maltais, and they had a strong push at the end of the game, but just couldn’t find a way to get past Frankel for the tying goal. The Fleet just keep winning, making it next to impossible for the rest of the teams to even get close to them in the standings.

Frost @ Sirens 

• Final Score: Frost 3, Sirens 2 (OT)
• Attendance: 4,244
• Thoughts: This was an evenly matched, back and forth, exciting and competitive game. The Frost took the lead in the 1st period off a misplay behind the net by Sirens goalie Kayle Osborne. The Sirens tied the goal in the 1st period off a great breakaway and jailbreak goal by rookie Casey O’Brien. The Frost took the lead early in the 2nd period on a goal by Kelly Pannek, before the Sirens tied the game yet again in the 2nd period on a goal by Taylor Girard. The 3rd period was competitive, but no goals were scored. In OT, Taylor Heise was the hero again for the Frost, this time with a great fake and beautiful pass to get the puck to Kendall Coyne Schofield, who scored her league-leading 9th goal to get the OT win for the Frost. Nicole Hensley was back in net for the Frost for the first time in a few weeks after battling an extended illness, and she looked sharp in her return.

Goldeneyes @ Sceptres 
Battle on Bay Street at Scotiabank Arena

• Final Score: Sceptres 2, Goldeneyes 1 (OT)
• Attendance: 17,856
• Thoughts: The Sceptres snapped their 4-game losing streak, but it took them until OT to get the win. They greatly outshot the Goldeneyes in this game, 44-24, but just could only get past Goldeneyes goalie Emerance Maschmeyer once before Daryl Watts got the unassisted goal in OT. The Goldeneyes only goal today came from none other than Sarah Nurse, newly back in the lineup in only her 2nd game of the season after an extended injury. The Sceptres badly needed this win, and are still looking to find some consistency in their game.

Victoire @ Sirens
Takeover Tour game at Capital One Arena, Washington, D.C.

• Final Score: Sirens 2, Victoire 1
• Attendance: 17,228 (setting a new American pro women’s hockey attendance record. Seattle previously held the record at 16,014 from their home opener game at the start of this season)
• Thoughts: The fans in DC really got a little bit of everything in this game! This record setting crowd was treated to some big hits, some great plays, and what will go down at a great save from Sirens goalie Kayle Osborne on a ridiculously hard shot from Marie-Philip Poulin. Poulin thought she scored on the play, and Osborne’s glove definitely crossed the goal line in making the save, but the Central Situation Room determined there wasn’t enough evidence to conclusively state that the puck had crossed the line. The teams traded power play goals in the first period, with rookie Kristýna Kaltounková continuing to light it up for the Sirens, and Maggie Flaherty getting a late period power play goal to tie things up. Anne Cherkowski scored on a nice shot in the 2nd period in what turned out to be the game-winning goal for the Sirens. The Victoire had a push late, right up until the final buzzer, that also resulted in a crazy 10 player scrum after the final horn sounded. This game was also an important one in the standings, with both teams tied for 3rd place coming into the game. The Sirens stayed hot and had a nice response after an OT loss a couple of days earlier. The Victoire continue to generate chances, but just can’t seem to find the back of the net enough in some of these tight games.

Fleet @ Torrent

• Final Score: Fleet 2, Torrent 1 (SO)
• Attendance: 12,774
• Thoughts: The Torrent had a big edge in shots in this game, 36-21, but Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel continues to be such a difference maker in every game she’s in. Goals by the Fleet’s Megan Keller in the 1st period and the Torrent’s Julia Gosling in the 2nd period would be the only markers in this game until the shootout. Among the 10 shooters in the shootout, the only goal there came from Hannah Brandt to win the game for the Fleet. It was big for the Torrent to even get 1 point in the standings in this game, but the Fleet just continue to roll.

U18 Women’s World Championships

There have been some really impressive players doing some really impressive things at this year’s U18 Women’s World Championships that I thought deserved a little attention. Here are the top performers:

• Jane Daley (Team USA) scored three consecutive hat tricks to open the tournament, and has continued scoring, tying her with Haley Skarupa for the most goals in a single U18 tournament. And the tournament isn’t over yet, so it seems likely that she’ll set the record before Team USA finishes play in the tournament.
• Nela Lopušanová (Team Slovakia) tied Kendall Coyne Schofield for most all-time points at the U18 tournament.

And of course, congratulations to Team USA for bringing home the gold medal!

Beanpot Semifinals

Congratulations to Boston University and Harvard for winning their Beanpot semifinal games to earn a spot in the Beanpot championship game on Tuesday night!

If you want to know more about the Beanpot tournament, its organizers, and to find a link to buy tickets to try to help set an attendance record at TD Garden, please check out my post from last month: Link

NCAA Games

#1 Wisconsin @ St. Thomas 
#2 Ohio State @ #14 MN State Mankato 
#3 Minnesota @ Bemidji State 
#4 Penn State @ Syracuse 
#5 UConn vs. Merrimack 
#6 Quinnipiac vs. Dartmouth & Harvard 
#7 Northeastern @ NH 
#8 MN Duluth vs. #15 St. Cloud State 
#9 Princeton vs. Harvard & Dartmouth 
#10 Cornell @ Brown & #13 Yale 

UConn split their weekend series with Merrimack, blowing them out 8-1 in the first game, then losing 2-1 in the second game. Quite a difference between those two games!

St. Cloud State had something of a statement weekend, officially tying MN Duluth on Friday (but earning the extra standings point in the shootout), and beating MN Duluth in regulation on Saturday.

Harvard had a tough weekend, losing games to Quinnipiac and Princeton. Here’s hoping they can find their stride for the Beanpot championship game already coming up tomorrow.

Yale continues to win some big games, including their weekend matchup against Cornell this weekend.