Her Puck Perspective: Weekly Recap – January 4, 2026

Happy new year everyone! We finally had some NCAA games back in session, plus a busy week of PWHL games that included 2 more Takeover Tour games. It was another fun week of women’s hockey!

News & Notes

There were a lot of roster updates and other similar notes, so let’s dive into those first before we get into the games this week.

• Aneta Tejralova was suspended 2 games for her head check to Sarah Fillier during the recent game between the Torrent and the Sirens.
• The Vancouver Goldeneyes have hired four-time Olympic gold medalist Charline Labonte to their hockey operations department.
• Victoire goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens did not dress for their 1/2 game against the Sirens in New York; Sandra Arbstreiter was in net, with Megan Warrener backing her up.
• The Victoire activated Jade Downie-Landry off of LTIR and placed Maya Labad on the reserve list.
• Sarah Fillier was back in the lineup for the Sirens for theiri game on 1/2 after missing one game following the tough hit she took from Aneta Tejralova in the game prior.
• The Goldeneyes activated rookie defender Nina Jobst-Smith off LTIR before their game on 1/3, but she did not play in the game. In a corresponding move, the Goldeneyes returned forward Malia Schneider to the reserve list.
• The Sceptres placed assistant captain Allie Munroe on LTIR with a lower-body injury and signed rookie Hanna Baskin to a standard contract.
• The Fleet signed defender Mia Biotti to a 10-day standard player contract.
• The Ottawa Charge announced that head coach Carla MacLeod will be away from the team from January 4-9 as she continues treatment for breast cancer. It is unclear whether she will be able to coach the Charge’s game on January 9th.
• The Victoire activated Lina Ljungblom off LTIR, moved Kelly-Ann Nadeau to reserve, and released reserve player Claire Vekich. They also signed Tamara Giaquinto to a 10-day contract as Erin Ambrose is out due to illness.

PWHL Games

Frost @ Sceptres

• Final Score: Frost 5, Sceptres 1
• Attendance: 8,318
• Thoughts: The Sceptres scored first in this game, with a goal from Daryl Watts about 5 minutes into the 1st period, but it was all Frost from that point on, at least on the scoreboard. The Frost got goals from Katy Knoll and Britta Curl-Salemme in the 1st, from Grace Zumwinkle and Kendall Coyne Schofield in the 2nd period, and an empty-net goal from Kendall Coyne Schofield in the 3rd period to put this one away. The Sceptres actually out-shot the Frost in this game, 32-26, but they couldn’t get any more past Frost goalie Nicole Hensley. Elaine Chuli played the first 2 periods in goal for the Sceptres, and Raygan Kirk played in the 3rd period, but in my opinion, Chuli’s play was not the reason for all of the goals given up; there were just too many good chances for Frost players in key spots on the ice, which is down more to the play of the Sceptres in front of Chuli than in her goaltending on this night.

Goldeneyes @ Sirens

• Final Score: Sirens 2, Goldeneyes 0
• Attendance: 2,735
• Thoughts: Sirens rookie and first overall draft pick Kristýna Kaltounková opened the scoring in this game for the Sirens, with her 4th goal of the season in the 1st period. Savannah Norcross gave the Sirens an insurance goal when she scored her 1st goal of the season in the 3rd period. This game was penalty heavy, with the Goldeneyes being called for 5 penalties and the Sirens called for 4. Neither team scored on their power play opportunities. The Goldeneyes continue to play without Sarah Nurse, who doesn’t sound to be close to returning, but they have still struggled to find consistency in their game just yet. The Sirens continue to struggle to draw fans to their home games, with by far the lowest attendance in the league; this is a young and exciting team that deserves more fan support than they’re receiving at their home games.

Victoire @ Sirens

• Final Score: Sirens 4, Victoire 3
• Attendance: 3,513
• A few roster changes that were notable before this game: Victoire goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens did not dress for this game; Sandra Arbstreiter was in net, with Megan Warrener backing her up. The Victoire also activated Jade Downie-Landry off of LTIR and placed Maya Labad on the reserve list. Sarah Fillier was back in the lineup for the Sirens after missing one game following the tough hit she took from Aneta Tejralova in the game before last.
• Thoughts: This was a back and forth game, with the Victoire taking the first lead of the game on Laura Stacy’s goal in the 1st period, but the Sirens tied it up in the 1st period on Anna Bargman’s first goal of the PWHL. The Sirens scored 2 goals in the 2nd period while the Victoire scored 1 in that period, and each team scored a goal in the 3rd period. The Victoire pushed hard in this game with 45 total shots on goal, but just couldn’t find a way to tie the score or keep the Sirens off the scoreboard. The Sirens have been a bit of streaky team so far this season, as they have now won 3 straight games in regulation to go on a strong winning streak that has them looking good in the standings. This Sirens team is young and exciting, and seem to be finding their identity more and more with each game. With such a young team, the Sirens will likely go through some growing pains, but if they can rebound quickly after experiencing some of those growing pains, this could be a surprise team to find their way into the playoffs this season.

Frost @ Charge

• Final Score: Charge 5, Frost 2
• Attendance: 8,235
• Thoughts: Ottawa is really starting to heat up, with this being their 4th straight victory, and their first regulation victory of this winning streak. They desperately needed to start gaining points in the standings, and their last couple of weeks has helped them start to move in the right direction. They only had 22 shots on goal in this game, but it was enough to beat the Frost comfortably. The Frost didn’t play as poorly as this score would indicate, but they were done in by the 3 Charge goals scored in the 2nd period. Brianne Jenner continues to be great for the Charge, scoring twice in this game.

Torrent @ Sceptres
Takeover Tour game at TD Coliseum, Hamilton, ON

• Final Score: Torrent 3, Sceptres 2 (Shootout)
• Attendance: 16,012
• Thoughts: The city of Hamilton seems to really want a PWHL team, and the fan turnout and support in this game just helped to prove that again. The fans were treated to an exciting, close, back and forth kind of game. The Torrent scored first with Lexie Adzija’s goal in the 1st period. The Sceptres answered early in the 2nd period on a goal from Natalie Spooner, and they then took the lead midway through the 3rd period on a nice goal by Daryl Watts, who has had a great start to her season. The Torrent answered late in the 3rd period, with Alex Carpenter evening the score, and continuing her strong start to the season as she became the first American PWHL player to reach 50 career points. Daryl Watts hit that milestone earlier in the week. After no scoring during the OT period, Corinne Schroeder stood tall in the shootout, stopping all 4 attempts she faced to get the win for the Torrent, who got shootout goals from Hannah Bilka and a really nice move from Anna Wilgren. The Torrent seem to be finding their stride a little bit more with each game.

Goldeneyes @ Fleet
Takeover Tour game at Little Caesars Arena, Detroit, MI,

• Final Score: Goldeneyes 4, Fleet 3
• Attendance: 9,624
• Thoughts: The story of this game was the Goldeneyes somehow finding a way to beat Aerin Frankel 4 times with just 21 total shots on goal. Frankel has been the toughest goalie to score in the league so far this season, and while she didn’t play terribly in this game, it was surprising to see her allow this many goals. The Fleet were up 2-1 after the 1st period, and stretched that lead to 3-1 early in the 3rd period before the Goldeneyes got 3 unanswered 3rd period goals to take the win. This was the Goldeneyes strongest performance in quite awhile, behind a 1st period goal by Hannah Miller and 3rd period goals by Claire Thompson, Sophie Jaques, and Izzy Daniel.

Frost @ Victoire

• Final Score: Victoire 3, Frost 2 (OT)
• Attendance: 10,172
• Thoughts: The Victoire were looking to stop their losing streak at 3 games after a rough stretch for the team. Most of the action in this game came late. Kendall Coyne Schofield became the 4th player in the PWHL to hit the 50 lifetime point mark, with her assist on Mae Batherson’s goal early in the 2nd period. The Victoire tied the game midway through the 3rd period on a goal from Marie-Philip Poulin, but Kendall Coyne Schofield looked like she was going to be the spoiler, when she scored off a fantastic pass from Taylor Heise with less than 2 minutes left in the 3rd period to give the Frost the late lead. The drama in this game wasn’t over, however, as Abby Roque scored with just under 30 seconds left to force OT. In the OT, Marie-Philip Poulin scored again to win the game for the Victoire and snap their losing streak. This was a tough ending to an otherwise strong game for Frost goalie Maddie Rooney, who was forced to play back to back games when Nicole Hensley went down late with an illness.

NCAA Games

#4 Penn State @ #2 Ohio State
#3 Minnesota @ Sacred Heart
#5 MN Duluth: Friendship series in Ireland vs.
#6 UConn @ Providence
#8 Quinnipiac: Friendship series in Ireland vs.
#9 Princeton vs. Stonehill
#10 Cornell @ #4 Penn State (just 1 game on 12/30)

We still had a few teams on holiday break this week, but it was good to get some college hockey back in the mix!

Penn State had the toughest schedule of any team this week, first facing #10 Cornell at home for one game on 12/30, and then heading to Ohio for a big weekend series against the #2 Buckeyes. Penn State was able to pull out the win 1-0 over Cornell, but Ohio State got the best of them in both of their games over the weekend.

MN Duluth also had a tough weekend over in Ireland for the Friendship series, losing to both Harvard and #8 Quinnipiac in this fun and unique tournament.