There’s a break in PWHL game action this week for all but 24 players, who are taking part in NHL All-Star festivities in Toronto.
The selected crew includes Hilary Knight, Marie-Philip Poulin, Megan Keller, Ann-Renée Desbiens and Laura Stacey — all of whom are playing in a 20-minute three-on-three game on Thursday, Feb. 1 at 8 p.m. ET, which you can watch on Sportsnet.
Both teams for the exhibition are predictably stacked, and below Team Kloss’s Stacey gives us her (unsurprising) prediction about which squad will win. Grain of salt, folks!
The league will also be turning one month old when it takes the NHL’s all-star stage, and in addition to a celebration, the event represents an opportunity for growth, if you ask Ottawa all-star, Emily Clark.
“The more people that can see us on the ice on the same screen as their favourite NHL players and have that exposure, the better. And hopefully a few more fans get to see our game that wouldn’t otherwise see it and get to appreciate the skill that we have,” Clark says. “Hopefully we gain even more of a following.”
Some all-stars will be at home
With such a short timeframe in which to select all-stars, the league went the safe route and picked all the top-selected players from pre-draft free agency and the first round. (Nicole Hensley is the exception, but she was the first goalie drafted, 12th overall by Minnesota.)
As a result, missing in action on All-Star Thursday are a couple of the league’s top producers. Grace Zumwinkle, who’s tied with Poulin with six goals to pace all scorers, won’t be there. Neither will Toronto’s leading scorer, Natalie Spooner. The 33-year-old ranks second in the league in goals, with five through eight games, and was named one of last week’s three stars.
Toronto picked up Spooner 24th overall in the draft (a steal), because she opted to take advantage of the league’s compassionate circumstances waiver. Her son, Rory, was born in December 2022, and she wanted to stay in the Toronto area, where she lives with her family.
That lower draft selection is certainly the reason Spooner wasn’t selected.
Toronto’s first home win a big one
Spooner had two goals in Toronto’s 2-0 win on Friday night. The victory was a massive one. Not only did it mark Toronto’s first W on home ice, it also snapped a three-game losing streak. It served as a little revenge, too, coming against New York, who in the first PWHL game ever played, rolled into Toronto and shut the home team out with a 4-0 win.
Toronto has been working on increasing offensive production, trailing the PWHL in both the overall standings and goals for. This despite the fact Toronto has out-shot their opponents in seven of eight games.
“The way we generate offence in the offensive zone, we’re lacking in scoring right now so we’re trying to find ways to help them understand there’s many ways to score goals,” says Toronto’s assistant coach, Mike Ellis. “We’re working on that a lot in practice.”
The team is still at the bottom of the league in both categories, but the win at home before the all-star break was certainly a boost Toronto can use.
To boot: The first home win was also a shutout for Kristen Campbell, who became the third goalie in the league to record one.
Suspension earned
The league handed down its first disciplinary action over the weekend, and it was a no-brainer. Boston forward Taylor Wenczkowski came through with a shoulder to the head of Ottawa’s Amanda Boulier on Wednesday.
Wenczkowski was suspended for one game, and served it over the weekend.
The decision was rendered by the PWHL Player Safety Committee, which is chaired by the league’s SVP of hockey operations, Jayna Hefford. The committee also includes PWHL special advisors Cassie Campbell-Pascall and Katie Guay, an official in the NHL and AHL, and others.
Luckily, Boulier is seemingly okay: the defender played in Ottawa’s next game.
Battle on Bay Street
Toronto has sold out all its games this season at Mattamy Athletic Centre, which seats some 2,700. But on Feb. 16, the team will have a chance to play in front of its biggest crowd yet.
The PWHL announced Toronto will host Montreal at Scotiabank Arena on Feb. 16 at 7 p.m. ET, a game the league is dubbing the “Battle on Bay Street.” The rink, home to the Toronto Maple Leafs, seats some 19,000 people.
“We saw Minnesota play a ton of games at the Minnesota Wild’s rink, and that’s really special,” says Toronto forward, Rebecca Leslie, who’s tied with Spooner for the team lead in points, with five. “Our venue now, we’re always sold out, so I think we need more people in there. It’s a great opportunity for minor hockey teams to get in there, so it’s really exciting.”
The record for attendance at a pro women’s hockey game is 13,316, set by Minnesota at their home opener this season. With Scotiabank’s capacity, there’s a chance it could fall.
So, will Toronto break it?
“I think we should,” Leslie says.
Tickets go on sale Feb. 1.
In other record-breaking news, Montreal set one for most fans at a women’s pro hockey game in Canada, drawing 8,646 to Place Bell on Jan. 27, a 2-1 OT win over Ottawa.
According to the PWHL, through 22 games, total attendance is 106,658. That’s an average of 4,848 fans per game.
Minnesota and Montreal are co-top dogs
Leading the league heading into the break are Montreal and Minnesota. Montreal got there in part by giving Minnesota its lone regulation loss of the season on Wednesday, a 2-1 win.
Minnesota’s Susanna Tapani says that given Minnesota’s coaching change just before the season — Charlie Burggraf stepped down a week before the start, and was replaced by former NHLer Ken Klee — the team is performing better than she expected.
“It wasn’t the easiest start,” the forward said, on account of the change behind the bench. “But I think we have played very well and just been developing our game, in every game we’ve played.”
Minnesota’s next one comes Saturday as they visit Toronto for the first time this season.
UP NEXT:
Thursday, Feb. 1: All-star 3-on-3 showcase, 8 p.m. ET on Sportsnet
Saturday, Feb. 3: Minnesota @ Toronto, 12 p.m. ET
Sunday, Feb. 4: New York @ Ottawa, 1 p.m. ET on Sportsnet; Montreal @ Boston, 3:30 p.m. ET.
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