Her Puck Perspective – Women’s Hockey Weekly Recap – March 1st, 2026

Before getting into this week’s women’s hockey recap, I want to share something honestly. The past few weeks have been incredibly full — in the best ways and in some really heavy ways. Between the nonstop stretch of big games across the Olympics, NCAA, and MN state tournament, the drama surrounding the men’s Olympic team, and the ongoing ICE occupation here in Minnesota, it’s been a lot to hold. Add in some personal travel and a busier-than-usual schedule, and I’ve realized I’m running low on creative energy.

I love this sport deeply, and I love the community around Her Puck Perspective. But right now, I’m feeling pretty burned out on the content side of things. Instead of pushing through and risking losing the joy that fuels this space, I’m going to scale back for a little while. Over the next few weeks, I’ll continue posting the core updates — the PWHL and NCAA games that are happening — but I may not have the capacity for the extra stories, deep dives, or creative pieces I usually love to share.

This isn’t a goodbye or even a long break — just a reset so I can come back with the spark and excitement that this sport deserves. Thank you for being here, for caring about women’s hockey, and for giving me the space to take a breath when I need it.

Now, with that said, let’s look back at another week in women’s hockey.

News/Notes/Roster Updates

There were a lot of roster updates this week, as we unfortunately saw a number of the best players from the Olympics return to the PWHL with injuries. Here’s hoping these players heal quickly and are back playing again soon.

• The Victoire signed Tamara Giaquinto to a standard player agreement and signed Kelly-Ann Nadeau to a 10-day contract. In corresponding moves, Erin Ambrose was placed on LTIR and Marie-Philip Poulin missed the first game out of the break and was listed as day to day. She returned in the Victoire’s second game out of the break on Sunday.
• The Fleet activated defender Olivia Zafuto from the reserve player list and moved forward Olivia Mobley to LTIR.
• The Sceptres signed forward Lauren Messier to a 10-day contract with Emma Gentry out day to day with a lower body injury.
• The Frost activated forward Élizabeth Giguère from the reserve player roster and signed to a standard player agreement. In a corresponding move, Kendall Coyne Schofield was placed on the LTIR due to a lower body injury sustained at the Olympics.
• The Torrent placed captain Hilary Knight on LTIR and activated forward Sydney Langseth from the reserve player list. If you recognize Sydney’s name, she was gracious enough to do an interview with me a few months ago. Please read my interview with Sydney Langseth if you’d like to learn more about her.
• Congratulations to Laura Stacy, who was the most recent player to reach to 50 point milestone.
• The Goldeneyes activated forward Brianna Brooks from the reserve list and signed her to a 10-day contract.

PWHL Games

Victoire @ Sirens

• Final score: Victoire 4, Sirens 1
• Attendance: 3,488
• Goal scorers (Victoire): Dara Greig (2), Jade Downie-Landry (1), Skylar Irving (1), Lina Ljungblom (1)
• Goal scorers (Sirens): Casey O’Brien (5)
• Thoughts: The Victoire got off to a fast start in this game, scoring their first 3 goals in the first 10 minutes of the game, and scoring those goals on just 5 shots in the first period. The Sirens had the shot advantage throughout this game, but couldn’t solve Ann-Renée Desbiens other than 1 power play goal.

Sceptres @ Torrent

• Final score: Sceptres 5, Torrent 2
• Attendance: 17,335 (U.S. women’s hockey attendance record and the highest attended primary home venue game in PWHL history)
• Goal scorers (Sceptres): Jesse Compher (5), Renata Fast (1), Emma Maltais (3), Sara Hjalmarsson (1) (EN), Kali Flanagan (2) (EN)
• Goal scorers (Torrent): Aneta Tejralová (1), Natalie Snodgrass (1)
• Thoughts: The Sceptres scored less than a minute into the game, and the Torrent looked a bit disjointed early in this game. That’s to be expected, with the team just getting their Olympians back in town this week, then having both Hilary Knight and Hannah Bilka out of the game with injuries. The Torrent played better as the first period progressed, and got a goal in the last minute of the 1st period to tie the score. The teams went back and forth in the 2nd period, before the Sceptres found the game winner early in the 3rd period, and sealed the game with 2 late empty net goals.

Fleet @ Charge

• Final score: Fleet 3, Charge 2 (SO)
• Attendance: 8,572
• Goal scorers (Fleet): Abby Newhook (5), Alina Müller (3)
• Goal scorers (Charge): Rebecca Leslie (9), Rebecca Leslie (10)
• Thoughts: The Fleet took the lead in the first period, and after a scoreless second period with neither team registering more than 5 shots in the period, the third period was much more action packed. Rebecca Leslie scored 8 seconds into the third period, and again less than 2 minute later, to give the Charge the lead, and the Fleet tied the game later in the period on the power play. This game ended in a shootout, which featured the ridiculously fun matchup in net of Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Philips. The Fleet made it dramatic in the shootout, needing goals on their last 2 shots to win, which they got thanks to Alina Müller and Hannah Brandt.

Frost @ Victoire

• Final score: Victoire 4, Frost 0
• Attendance: 10,172
• Goal scorers (Victoire): Maggie Flaherty (3), Dara Greig (3), Maureen Murphy (4), Laura Stacey (3)
• Thoughts: It was good to see Marie-Philip Poulin back on the ice again after her injury at the Olympics. The Victoire looked like they were fully back to their strong play from before the Olympics, while the Frost very much looked like a team that had only had 2 practices post-Olympics with their full roster, and was in their first game back together after the break. That’s not to take anything away from the Victoire; they played great in this game, but the Frost definitely did not play anywhere near their best. The Victoire leap-frogged both the Fleet and Frost in the standings with this win, and are currently sitting in 1st place in the PWHL standings. This was strong effort from start to finish for the Victoire.

Sceptres @ Goldeneyes

• Final score: Sceptres 2, Goldeneyes 1
• Attendance: 13,624
• Goal scorers (Sceptres): Sara Hjalmarsson (2), Lauren Messier (1)
• Goal scorers (Goldeneyes): Izzy Daniel (5)
• Thoughts: Coming out the Olympic break this week, Sceptres players acknowledges that they needed to play better to get themselves back into the playoffs, and they definitely were able to do that in their first 2 games back, with another nice win in this game. This was a pretty evenly matched game in a lot of areas, but the Sceptres found the way to get the win, and if they start finding more consistency, it will add another team to what’s going to be a really fun playoff race in this second half of the season.

NCAA Games

#1 Wisconsin vs. Bemidji State
#2 Ohio State vs. St. Thomas
#3 Penn State vs. Syracuse
#4 Minnesota vs. St. Cloud State
#5 Northeastern vs. Boston University
#6 UConn vs. Maine
#7 Quinnipiac vs. Brown
#8 Yale vs. Union
#9 MN Duluth vs. MN State Mankato
#10 Princeton vs. Harvard

This weekend was the start of the NCAA conference playoffs for all of our teams, so it was an extra exciting weekend! If you didn’t see my post from Friday previewing the conference championships, you can check it out here.

Wisconsin got a little scare from Bemidji State in their 2nd game, with Bemidji State tying the game late to force OT, but Wisconsin won the game shortly into OT to send them back to the WCHA Frozen Faceoff next weekend.

Minnesota, Quinnipiac, and Princeton all needed all 3 games in their weekend series to finish the job, but all 3 teams did win their series and move on in their conference tournaments.

Probably the biggest upset of the weekend was MN State Mankato beating MN Duluth in 3 games. They won in OT in game 2 before surprising a lot of people to win the series in game 3. MN State Mankato has had some strong play at times this season, most notably sweeping Minnesota, and it will be fun to see if they have any more upsets in them next weekend in the WCHA Final Faceoff.