Her Puck Perspective: Weekly Recap – January 11, 2026

It was a bit of a lighter week of games in the PWHL, but the NCAA teams were back at full force, and there were great games and performances in both the PWHL and NCAA.

Roster Updates & Team Announcements

Again this week, we saw a number of roster updates and other team announcements. Here’s what happened this week.

• The New York Sirens activated Dayle Ross off of LTIR and returned Olivia Knowles to the reserve player list.
• The Ottawa Charge put goalie Sanni Ahola on LTIR due to illness and signed Sarah Coe to a standard player agreement, only to reverse both actions later that week when Sanni Ahola was able to be activated off LTIR; Sarah Coe was then released.
• The Minnesota Frost placed Dominique Petrie on LTIR and signed Kaitlyn O’Donohoe to a standard player agreement. It sounds like Petrie’s injury may keep her out for awhile, so best wishes to her and hoping for a speedy recovery.
• The New York Sirens announced that they will play the Seattle Torrent at Madison Square Garden on April 4th; this will be the first time fans will be able to watch professional women’s hockey at this historic venue, and it should be a fun and special game for the players involved on both sides.

PWHL Games

Sirens @ Sceptres

• Final Score: Sirens 2, Sceptres 0
• Attendance: 7,924
• Thoughts: New York’s winning streak has hit 4 straight games, and they are looking like the young, dynamic team people thought they might be after the roster upheaval they went through this summer. Kristýna Kaltounková has to be one of the top contenders for Rookie of the Year with her strong start to this season, scoring her 6th and 7th goals in this game. Kayle Osborne continues to look strong in net for the Sirens, and this team is on a roll. Elaine Chuli also played a strong game in net for the Sceptres, allowing only 1 goal (the 2nd goal was an empty-netter). The Sceptres out-shot the Sirens 31-22 in this game, but just couldn’t find a way past Osborne.

Torrent @ Fleet

• Final Score: Fleet 2, Torrent 1
• Attendance: 6,003
• Thoughts: This was a low shooting affair on both sides, with the Fleet having 23 total shots on goal, and the Torrent only 15. Plain and simple, 15 shots on goal isn’t going to be a recipe for success often in hockey at all, but especially not against a goalie as good as Aerin Frankel. Jamie Lee Rattray scored in her second consecutive game to give the Fleet the lead in the 1st, and Megan Keller added to the Fleet’s lead early in the 3rd period. The Torrent made things interesting with Hannah Bilka’s goal later in the 3rd period, but they couldn’t find the equalizer late in the game, with only 4 shots on goal in the 3rd period. The Fleet continue to look like the 1st place team they are, and have found a variety of ways to win on their impressive run so far this season.

Goldeneyes @ Charge

• Final Score: Charge 4, Goldeneyes 2
• Attendance: 7,899
• Thoughts: The Charge remain on a roll, winning their 5th straight game. After finding themselves in last place in the standings, they have turned things around and look much more like the team that got so close to winning the Walter Cup last season. The Goldeneyes have continued to struggle more than I expected; they are surely still missing Sarah Nurse, and it’s unfair to downplay how much losing any player can impact an entire team, but in particular a player as skilled and important as Sarah Nurse. It sounds like Nurse could be back in the next few weeks, so it will be interesting to see how she looks as she works to return to full health, and also how the team will be able to adjust once they get her back in the lineup. In this game, the Charge took the lad early, with a 1st period goal from Ronja Savolainen. All of the goals the rest of the game were scored in the 3rd period, so that became a bit of a back and forth affair, but the Charge stayed in the lead the entire game and were able to close it out in the 3rd, helped by 2 empty net goals.

Charge @ Fleet
Takeover Tour game at Scotiabank Centre in Halifax, NS

• Final Score: Charge 2, Fleet 1 (SO)
• Attendance: 10,452
• Thoughts: The Fleet outshot the Charge in this game by a large margin, with shots on goal 32-18 in Boston’s favor, but couldn’t find their way past Charge goalie Sanni Ahola other than Susanna Tapani’s goal early in the 1st period. The Charge tied up the game in the 3rd period on Brianne Jenner’s 7th goal of the season, putting her just 1 goal behind Kendall Coyne Schofield for the league lead in goals this season. With this win, the Charge catapulted themselves all the way up to 4th place in the standings, when just a couple of weeks ago, they were sitting at the very bottom. This was the Charge’s 6th straight win, and they have to be encouraged to have Sanni Ahola back, healthy, and looking this strong as their backup goalie. Having a strong goalie tandem will be a huge asset to the Charge down the stretch.

Torrent @ Frost

• Final Score: Frost 6, Torrent 2
• Attendance: 9,787
• Thoughts: The Frost looked energized to be back home, with this being their first home game in over 3 weeks, due to the men’s World Juniors tournament being held at their home rink for much of the second half of December. The Frost looked strong basically from the opening puck drop and put together a complete, dominant game. Katy Knoll and Grace Zumwinkle each scored 2 goals for the Frost. Maddie Rooney looked like the goalie Frost fans have known and loved over the first 2 seasons; she had a tough start to the season, but looked much more like herself in this game and, while not tested too much in the first period, was solid and helped to negate any scoring chances the Torrent looked to build. After a tough end to their road trip last weekend, the Frost looked solid and seemed to even get stronger as the game went on.

Goldeneyes @ Victoire
Takeover Tour game at Videotron Centre in Quebec City, QC

• Final Score: Victoire 1, Goldeneyes 0
• Attendance: 14,624
• Thoughts: The Victoire continue to not get a lot of scoring, but with Ann-Renée Desbiens in net, scoring 1 goal was enough to get them the win. They played a strong game overall, and Desbiens did the rest in net. Nicole Gosling scored her first goal of her PWHL career for the only marker in this game. The Victoire’s penalty kill came up big in the 3rd, killing off a 5 minute major to Abby Roque for a check to the head. The fans in Quebec City were treated to a close, exciting game, and they got to cheer on local Desbiens, who is from the area.

NCAA Matchups

#1 Wisconsin @ #8 MN Duluth 
#2 Ohio State @ #15 St. Cloud State 
#3 Minnesota vs. #12 MN State Mankato 
#4 Penn State @ Mercyhurst 
#5 UConn @ Maine 
#6 Northeastern @ #14 Yale & Providence 
#7 Quinnipiac @ RPI & Union 
#9 Princeton  @ Union & RPI 
#10 Cornell vs. #11 Clarkson & St. Lawrence 

We had a lot of ranked matchups this weekend, with the higher ranked teams winning the majority of those games. One exception was Friday night’s game between Wisconsin and MN Duluth; Bulldogs goalie Ève Gascon, after not being named to Team Canada’s Olympic roster earlier that day, came out and gave her team a 38 save performance, and while the game officially ended as a tie in OT, the Bulldogs did get the extra standings point in the shootout. The Badgers came back and beat the Bulldogs decisively on Saturday, 5-1, but that doesn’t make Friday’s performance any less impressive.

Penn State split their weekend series with Mercyhurst, and Yale was able to take the win against Northeastern earlier in the week.

Northeastern, Boston College, Boston University, and Harvard have short turnarounds as the first round of the Beanpot tournament happens this Tuesday.