Top 5 takeaways from Week 1 of the PWHL season: Fillier, Petrie lead rookie surge

In the opening week of the 2024-25 PWHL season, a lot of new faces made immediate impacts on their teams. Also, a couple of teams surprised many with how they’ve opened the new campaign, both in a good way and the bad.

Let’s look back at the big storylines from the past week.

1. Sarah Fillier is a force

Hmm…I wonder who could’ve predicted this?

New York Sirens rookie Sarah Fillier came into her first season with much pomp and circumstance. Being the first-overall pick and a long and drawn-out contract negotiation, there was a ton of pressure on the Canadian National Team mainstay to perform well at the pro level. Yet, Fillier has played as advertised.

Through three games, the Georgetown, Ontario native leads all skaters with five points, finding the back of the net twice herself. She registered a pair of assists, including the helper on Alex Carpenter’s overtime winner against the Minnesota Frost last Sunday. Then, she backed that up with two goals and an assist in a 4-1 beating of the Montreal Victoire.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Fillier has the ability to tear the PWHL up, but with how tough the transition has been for other national team players, her immediate impact is something to behold.

2. Are the Sirens for real?

Sticking with the Big Apple vibes…is it too early to predict who is a contender? Sure. However, in the opening seven days of their season, the Sirens are looking very, very good.

With Fillier and Carpenter playing like a modern-day duo of Wayne Gretzky and Jari Kurri, New York has a strong scoring punch up front that they didn’t have for most of last season. The international border rivals have been involved in eight of New York’s 10 goals so far this season, with Carpenter sitting second to Fillier in league scoring with five points.

Now, yes, New York caught everyone off guard by having a solid start to the inaugural season before falling off in the final couple of months, and their loss to the Boston Fleet wasn’t ideal. Yet, with Corinne Schroeder playing back at a premier level, and a strong offense, the Sirens are playing like a playoff contender.

It will be interesting to see how they deal with their early injury woes. Veteran forward Jill Saulnier and No. 1 defender Ella Shelton were both placed on long-term injured reserve last week, leading to the additions of Kayla Vespa and Olivia Knowles.

3. Dominique Petrie is no slouch, either

While people were focused on the likes of Fillier, Danielle Serdachny of the Ottawa Charge and the Boston Fleet’s Hannah Bilka, one rookie who has made a notable contribution early on is Minnesota Frost forward Dominique Petrie.

Petrie came into the season a little under the radar, having been taken in the fifth round of this year’s PWHL Draft. She came out of Clarkson as a talented scorer but not quite on the same level as some of the other names mentioned. Yet, that didn’t stop her from storming out of the gate.

Petrie has been a big part of the team’s 2-0-1-0 start, scoring goals in each contest, including the game-winner against the Boston Fleet last Wednesday. With three goals on the young season, the 23-year-old is tied for the league lead in goals.

4. “New” rules, same level of physicality

Heading into the league’s second season, the PWHL rules committee reworded Rule 52.1, which describes legal body checking. League officials described the “change” as a way to combat opposite-direction hits, trying to limit high-impact collisions in games. However, that has not deterred players from big hits.

From the first game of the season between the Fleet and Toronto Sceptres, there has been plenty of checking between the six teams. Boston has been the most physical team thus far. Through three games, the team has registered 72 hits, with Megan Keller leading the PWHL with 11. They are far ahead of the Sceptres, who have the second-most recorded hits with 57.

The hard-hitting reached a fever pitch last Wednesday when Frost defender Maggie Flaherty caught Boston’s top scorer, Alina Müller, with an obvious hit to the head.

In the moment, a video review led to a potentially major penalty being deduced to a minor. However, the PWHL made up for it by suspending Flaherty for two games. Müller was left out of the lineup in Boston’s game on Sunday and is currently in concussion protocol.

Though the league has tried to send a message early on, it’s clear some players haven’t received the message.

5. The Charge faithful show up to the CTC

The first “different” venue of the 2024-25 PWHL season saw border rivals go at it in an NHL barn this past Friday. The Victoire took on the Charge at the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the Ottawa Senators. It was an opportunity to see how much the two team’s fanbases will turn out in a big arena.

The attendance of 11,065, a record for an Ottawa home game, was treated to a hard-fought battle that saw the Victoire beat the Charge 2-1. While it didn’t reach the level seen when Montreal and Toronto met at Scotiabank Arena and Bell Centre last season, it was great to see another big crowd at an NHL venue.

It will be interesting to see if the PWHL draws 10,000-plus crowds once the Takeover Tour begins in a few weeks.

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