Pulse of the PWHL: Down to the Wire Yet Again in Season 3

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By Scott Lowe – MYHockeyRankings.com

For the first time ever, the sport of women’s ice hockey found itself in a position to capitalize on the excitement and energy generated by the Winter Olympics.

That’s exactly what has happened, but the public’s continued interest in the sport since the thrilling gold medal matchup in late February between the United States and Canada has been even more impressive than anyone could have imagined.

The primary reason women’s hockey has been able to continue building on the Olympic momentum is the existence of the Professional Women’s Hockey League. In return, the PWHL has been a huge beneficiary of the increased interest and awareness in the sport.

Friday night, when the Montreal Victoire host the Boston Fleet at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec, the league will eclipse 1 million in attendance for the 2025-26 season, the first time that has been accomplished in a single campaign. It took the PWHL 155.games, including playoffs, and more than a full season of play to attract the first million. This time, the feat was pulled off in 109 contests, 46 fewer (30 percent) than was required to draw 1 million the first time.

The importance of the game only adds to the excitement surrounding the historic evening; Montreal is one point ahead of the Fleet with 58 points and a 16-4-2-5 record. Boston is 15-5-2-5. Each team has three games remaining.

Puck drop for this important tilt is slated for 7 p.m. EDT, and the game can be viewed live on NESN in the United States and TSN/RDS in Canada. It may be possible to view the contest on other regional sports networks in the United States, so check local listings, and it also can be seen on the PWHL YouTube Channel.

The regular-season title isn’t the only thing on the line during the season’s penultimate weekend.

Only the expansion Seattle Torrent have been eliminated from postseason contention as all eight teams prepare for their final three games. The Fleet, Victoire and two-time defending-champion Minnesota Frost have clinched the top three playoff seeds, but only two points separate the fourth-place Ottawa Charge, fifth-place New York Sirens and sixth-place Toronto Sceptres. The first-year Vancouver Goldeneyes are still hanging on by a thread, six points behind Ottawa.

CLICK HERE for the complete PWHL standings.

Ottawa hosts New York Saturday, April 18, at 2 p.m. EDT before wrapping up its season at Boston April 22 and home vs. Toronto April 25. The Sirens also host Toronto April 21 and travel to Boston to close out their season April 25. Toronto is at Minnesota April 19 in addition to its matchups vs. New York and at Ottawa. Vancouver plays at Seattle April 18, home vs. Montreal April 21 and home against Minnesota April 25, so the Goldeneyes will be doing quite a bit of scoreboard watching as long as they stay alive.

Meanwhile Seattle, the only team eliminated, gets a head start on compiling points as part of the league’s “Golden Plan.” The PWHL ensures every regular-season game has meaning by giving the team that amasses the most points after playoff elimination the first pick in that year’s entry draft.

CLICK HERE for the complete PWHL schedule.

Unlike other North American professional sports leagues that have had to deal with teams tanking in hopes of improving their odds of getting the No. 1 draft pick, the PWHL’s format has ensured that every team has something to play for right up until the end of the regular season. And with seven teams either having clinched a berth in the Walter Cup Playoffs or still in the hunt, the league couldn’t be in a better spot as the regular-season winds down.

The Walter Cup Playoffs will get underway shortly after the conclusion of the regular season April 25. Four teams qualify for postseason play, with the top seed allowed to select its first-round opponent by choosing either the third or fourth seed. The semifinals and finals are best-of-five series, with the higher seeds hosting Games 1, 2 and 5.  The Minnesota Frost have captured the Walter Cup each of the PWHL’s first two seasons.

As the Frost prepare to defend those titles, Minnesota Head Coach Ken Klee said his team understands the challenge that lies ahead and the how strong the league is from top to bottom.

“The first year, a bunch of us all tied and we're all trying to get in the last day, and then last year we knew we had to win out to get in,” Klee told the press after a recent victory. “Then obviously this year, being in, {the games) are a little different, and it doesn't really matter until it gets to the playoffs. We know that it's not a switch that you can just turn off, so we know that we have got to be ready, and whoever we play, it's going to be a tough test. It's not like we've cruised to our first two Walter Cups. We know it's very difficult to win, and this league's really good.”

The scenario is a little different for Boston and Montreal, who like the Frost have clinched spots in the playoffs but are still battling for the regular-season title and the top postseason seed.

With everything on the line and a playoff spot still possible but not likely, the sixth-place Sirens scored three straight goals in the third period to rally from a 2-0 deficit and knock off Toronto, 3-2, in their most recent game at home in Newark, N.J., April 15. That pulled New York to within two points of the final playoff spot with three games remaining.

“It’s not about what I say,” Sirens Head Coach Greg Fargo told assembled media after that victory. “At this point in the year, our team knows who we are and how we play. It comes down to their belief in one another and how hard we’re willing to fight together.”

The lesson was clear in the losing locker room as well.

“{We} felt that one in the room — that was a tough one to lose,” Toronto defender Ella Shelton said. “I think we started off not amazing, and then we found our footing … We then sat back a little bit. We just have to be a team that’s not going to sit back and go push forward. We’re in a playoff push with some pretty tight points between this team and Ottawa.”

First-place Monteal enters the home stretch of the season on fire. The Victoire are riding a 15-game point streak and have not suffered a regulation loss since a 2-1 setback against New York Jan. 18. Boston, on the other hand, also is playing some of its best hockey of the season, having won six of its last seven contests. 

The exciting playoff chase is by design, with seven of the PWHL’s teams still in the mix as the season culminates. A regular reason that enters the final week of play with so much to be decided every year, most of the world’s best players competing and unique tweaks to the regular-season format and rules of the game all have contributed to the league’s initial and continued overwhelming popularity since launching during the summer of 2023.

An aggressive decision to capitalize on its initial success by choosing to expand into the Seattle and Vancouver markets after just two seasons instead of waiting sent a clear message to North American sports fans that the PWHL was here to stay. Another round of expansion seems imminent, with Detroit being prominently mentioned as a target market. Exposing the sport and its stars to new markets around North America during the last two seasons via the league’s highly successful Takeover Tour has proven to be a stroke of marketing genius.

Those elements in combination have allowed the league to continue breaking women’s hockey attendance records on a regular basis. With two seasons that surpassed all reasonable expectations under its belt, the PWHL was on track to take its success to even new heights during Season 3.

Then along game the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics in February.

Shutting down for a month to allow top players to compete in an international tournament can be a risky proposition for any professional league, but for the PWHL the Olympic tournament would turn out to be the gift that keeps giving.

Women’s hockey traditionally has been one of the most popular Winter Olympic competitions in terms of television ratings, buoyed by classic gold medal battles between the United States and Canada. This year proved to be no different as the U.S. captured the gold medal with a thrilling overtime victory against its arch-rival.

This time, however, there was more to come.

In the past, despite the excitement women’s hockey generated during the Winter Games, most of the players dispersed after the Olympics and went off to play in virtual obscurity for their college teams or in some far-off foreign professional league. This year, not only did the PWHL get a ton of invaluable promotion with so many of the league’s top players participating and leading their teams during the Olympics, but anyone who became a fan of players or took an interest in the sport has been able to continue following those players and their teams thanks to be accessibility of PWHL games via over-the-air networks and the internet.

The results have been spectacular.

In addition to the Montreal-Boston game, which will see the league surpass the 1-million attendance mark for the first time in a single season, the PWHL eclipsed the 2-million fan mark in the 275h game since its inception when more than 10,000 turned out to see Seattle beat New York, 4-1, March 25 at Allstate Arena.

An average of 9,229 fans have attended PWHL games during the 2025-26 season, an increase of 28 percent over Season 2 and 62 percent from the inaugural campaign. Regular-season ticket sales are pacing 70 percent ahead of 2024-25, while the total number of games has increased by just 30 percent from 90 to 120.

The league’s final Takeover Tour game of the season was held April 7 at Rogers Place in Edmonton in front of 10,794 fans. Boston beat Vancouver, 5-1, bringing the total attendance for three games played there during the last two seasons to 38, 576. Including a game played in Calgary, 54,726 fans turned out for four contests played in Alberta, the most in any province or state outside the PWHL’s primary markets.

In addition, league games sold out two historic arenas during two consecutive weekends in April, with each contest surpassing the previous United States single-game attendance record for women’s professional hockey. More than 18,000 fans jammed Madison Square Garden in New York April 4, breaking the U.S. single-game attendance mark for the eighth time since the PWHL began play in 2024. A week later, 17,850 fans filled Boston TD Garden to watch the league’s top two teams face off.  

Despite the many successes the 2025-26 season has brought for the PWHL, it’s possible that the best still is yet to come with an exciting final two weekends of regular-season play and the Walter Cup Playoffs still on the horizon.