Five takeaways from Week 10 of the PWHL: No show in Buffalo, and Fight Night in Ottawa

We’re two-thirds through the PWHL’s 2024-25 regular-season, and we’ve got ourselves one heck of a playoff race, with first and fifth place in the standings separated by just nine points.

This week, we saw more PWHL Takeover Tour games, one team shoot up the standings, and the first fight in league history.

No show in Buffalo

Sunday’s game between the Boston Fleet and New York Sirens was a chippy affair that saw all-world goaltending performances between Aerin Frankel and Kayle Osborne, with Boston winning 3-2 in a shootout.

It was also the latest in the PWHL’s Takeover Tour, with teams playing neutral-site games at various NHL arenas in North America. This week, the Fleet and Sirens played at KeyBank Center in Buffalo, N.Y., home of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres.

The announced attendance for the game was 8,512, which if you compare it to other Takeover Tour games we’ve seen this season, is a big disappointment. Last week, the Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge squared off in Edmonton’s Rogers Place, and a sold-out crowd of 17,518 was in attendance. Before then, Vancouver saw 19,038 fans, Seattle had 12,608, Denver saw 14,018, and Quebec City had 18,259.

What adds to the frustration is the city was home to one of the NWHL/PHF’s original four franchises, the Buffalo Beauts. The club won the Isobel Cup in 2016-17, and played in the league’s first four Isobel Cup Championships. They also led in attendance for the league’s first few seasons.

While a number of factors could go into the lacklustre attendance figure – bad weather, poor marketing, lack of social media buzz – in a season where the PWHL is looking at where potential expansion markets could flourish, seeing chunks of empty seats in an NHL arena’s lower bowl might leave a bad taste in the league’s mouth.

PWHL to make expansion decision soon

Speaking of expansion, the PWHL announced last week that the league could make an announcement regarding additional teams “over the next four to six weeks.”

“Right now, we’re really at the end of the evaluation phase,” Amy Scheer, executive vice president of PWHL business operations, said during a media availability. “So, my guess is somewhere over the next four to six weeks, we will have something to say whether we go ahead with it or not…we’re preparing the final evaluations right now.”

Fellow Daily Faceoff PWHL writer Tyler Kuehl pointed out last week that it seems like the league is looking westward, as both Seattle and Vancouver had successful Takeover Tour games and have booming markets that support the women’s game.

“I wouldn’t be shocked if those were the markets at the top of the league’s list,” Kuehl wrote.

While it does appear the league wants to make its mark on both coasts, I’ll be curious as to how successful the league’s March 16 Takeover Tour game at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit is. Last season, 13,376 fans saw PWHL Boston and PWHL Ottawa square off in Detroit, with a staggering amount of minor hockey teams and fans in attendance. If you’re wondering what the best non-west coast option for expansion is, look to the Motor City.

Fighting and cages vs. visors

Last week, we saw the league’s first “square up and punch” fight between the Fleet’s Jill Saulnier and the Charge’s Tereza Vanisova.

While the two players kept their gloves on because they were wearing cages, some serious punches were thrown and landed. The two players were given double-minor penalties instead of five-minute majors

Brian Burke, executive director of the PWHL Players’ Association, was on The Sheet with Daily Faceoff’s Jeff Marek last Friday to discuss the fight, and whether players would ever agree to wearing visors instead of cages, like their male professional counterparts.

“We have players that would like the rule book to allow fighting like that,” Burke said. “I’m not in favour of it, but I’ll defer to the players at the end of the day.”

As for cages vs. visors, Marek says he asked Montreal Victoire defender Erin Ambrose that if you put it to a vote, how many players would go to the quarter visor instead of the full cage.

“We’re not stupid, we’re keeping the cages on,” Marek says Ambrose told him.

Burke says he jokingly told the players in the union that he doesn’t want them to look like him when they’re 50.

“I’ve had 100 stitches in my face, I’ve had broken noses,” Burke said. “I don’t want my players to look like I do not, hobbling around.”

Sceptres climb up the standings

Well dang, they’ve done it again. Make it two years in a row that the Sceptres have gotten off to a poor start, only to string together a chunk of wins and climb up the standings, putting themselves just two points behind the Victoire for first place in the PWHL.

Sure, they’ve played three more games than Montreal, but technicalities are for contracts and courtrooms. Let’s just take a step back and appreciate how good this stretch of hockey has been for Toronto, a team that won only three times in their first 11 games. Yes, the Sceptres were without reigning MVP Natalie Spooner for the first 15 games of the season, but key players were struggling to score, and we saw some of the same rust that plagued Kristen Campbell for early chunks of last year.

This season is a different story, as other players have stepped up offensively, carrying the workload for a team starved of production. Jesse Compher scored just one goal in 24 games last season, but this year she has seven to go along with seven assists for 14 points. Daryl Watts turned heads with Ottawa last season, and she’s kept that energy going this year, scoring six goals and 18 points through 20 games.

Most impressive of all is Hannah Miller, who last year was a key depth piece in the Sceptres lineup, but this season has taken on the mantle as arguably the team’s most important player. With 10 goals and 12 assists, Miller’s 22 points leads the entire PWHL.

With Spooner finding her game and an injured Sarah Nurse potentially available at the end of the regular season, the Sceptres are setting themselves up for redemption in this spring’s postseason.

Jillian Dempsey stays in Boston

When you think about the women’s game in Boston, no player epitomizes it more than Jillian Dempsey, who last week signed a full Standard Player Agreement with the Fleet, a little over a week after joining the club through a 10-day contract.

“Before this league even existed, Jill Dempsey was a cornerstone of the hockey community in Boston—both on and off the ice,” said Boston Fleet General Manager Danielle Marmer. “We’ve seen firsthand the impact she’s had in practice and how she elevates our team when called upon, as she did during her 10-day stint. Her work ethic, attention to detail, and hockey IQ make us better, and we’re excited to have her in the lineup.”

Since Dempsey joined the Fleet’s lineup, she’s played in five games, helping the team win all five of them. While she’s averaging less than 10 minutes of ice time per game, she’s responsible in her own end and carries a plus-two rating during that span.

“It has been so much fun playing in the last few games, and I can’t wait to continue playing for my home city and the incredible Boston fans,” Dempsey said.

This is Dempsey’s third stint with a professional team in Boston. For two seasons between 2013 and 2015, she played with the CWHL’s Boston Blades, where she helped the team win a Clarkson Cup in 2015. Dempsey then joined the Boston Pride of the NWHL/PHF, where she spent the next eight seasons, five as captain. She led the Pride to three Isobel Cup championships.

She finished as the NWHL/PHF’s all-time leading scorer with 146 points in 142 career games played.