This was a goalie duel between Fleet’s Aerin Frankel and Vancouver’s Kristen Campbell. The Fleet’s Haley Winn and the Goldeneyes’ Hannah Miller traded goals in the third, but Shay Maloney was the OT hero for the Fleet.

Watch game highlights.

Seattle Torrent was so back! Last place Torrent snapped their 4-game losing streak against first place Boston Fleet, ending Boston’s 6-game win streak!

This game featured a nasty backhand bar down goal from Alex Carpenter with just five seconds remaining in the first period. Torrent was down 2-1 in the third period, but Mikyla Grant-Mentis tied it up with an awesome jailbreak goal! Danielle Serdachny got the game-winner just a few minutes later off of a perfect pass from Natalie Snodgrass.

watch my video game recap (with clips), and this video of us cheering on the jumbotron after the game-winning goal!

Frost has owned Torrent all season. 😭 This game was also pretty spicy. There was a hit on Lexie Adzija that probably should have been called for boarding but was not. Later in the game, Julia Gosling laid a hit on Britta Curl-Salemme. In response, Britta Curl-Salemme laid a hit on Mikyla Grant-Mentis (the jailbreak hero from Wednesday). Mikyla Grant-Mentis was injured and did not return to the game.

watch my video game recap (with clips).

Did Sarah Nurse score the goal of the year?

The Goldeneyes had a 2-1 lead with a minute remaining in regulation, but Sarah Wozniewicz tied it up for the Charge with only 54 seconds left! Rebecca Leslie scored the game winner and is now tied for league lead in goals!

Sarah Nurse spoke out about a play with 2:12 remaining in OT that she thought should have been called for slashing, and many fans criticized the reffing.

Watch game highlights.

Why can’t Boston and Montreal ever be normal ?! This was a battle for first place and a taste of a potential 2026 Walter Cup matchup!

After getting the first goal of the game, Marie-Philip Poulin appeared to re-injure her leg and did not return to the game. (Her leg was originally injured in the Olympics vs Czechia, but she returned to play in the semifinal and the final.) Kati Tabin and Abby Roque made it 3-0 Victoire.

The momentum shifted in the third period, as Victoire’s Maggie Flaherty took a major penalty and game misconduct for body checking [replay]. I agree that it was an illegal check, as the players were traveling in opposite directions. Jill Saulnier’s head appeared to make contact with the boards and she did not return to the game. I really hope she is OK.

The first Boston goal was controversial because it was initially called “no goal” on the ice for goaltender interference, but after it was reviewed by the CSR it was called a goal.

The Fleet scored TWO more goals with the extra attacker, with Susanna Tapani scoring with only 15 seconds left in the game to send it to overtime.

Rookie Ella Huber scored the game-winning goal for the Fleet, and this was Victoire’s first loss at Place Bell all season.

Watch game highlights.

Cayla Barnes suffered an injury from a hit from Ella Shelton. This was not called as a penalty. I don’t think it was a penalty because technically the PWHL rules allow hitting if players are skating in the same direction (which they were). However, because it was far from the boards, it was more dangerous and Barnes hit the ice. There appears to be a lot of confusion between players, refs, and fans, as to what is actually legal tbh.

Sceptres goaltender Raygan Kirk earned her first career shutout.

watch my video game recap (with clips).

Colorado-born goalie Nicole Hensley held it down for the Frost to make this 4-0 through 2 periods.

With about 6 minutes left in the second period, spicy queen Taylor Girard attempted to throw a hit on Britta Curl-Salemme, but went down awkwardly and injured her knee. Girard had to be stretchered off of the ice. 😔

This game was really spicy, with 4 roughing penalties being taken in the third period. The Sirens fought back with 3 goals in the last 8 minutes to make the final score 4-3.

With an attendance of 15,512, I really expect Denver to get a PWHL team in the next round of expansion. Read my full expansion predictions here.

Watch game highlights.

In my opinion, the PWHL needs to figure out hitting and reffing if they want to become mainstream. I’ll probably write some more detailed thoughts on this next week, but here are some of my initial thoughts:

The top four teams make the playoffs. Read my explanations of standings and draft order (gold plan).

Top 🔝: Minnesota Frost. With 2 regulation wins over Seattle and New York, Minnesota moves into the second playoff spot

Bottom 💔: New York Sirens. With a tough loss in Denver (plus an injury to Taylor Girard), the Sirens slip out of a playoff spot

What If the Best Way to Build Women’s Sports Community Isn’t Social Media?

When algorithms control our feeds, how can we retake control of our own means of distribution? When social media is filled with AI, how can we connect with each other in authentic and meaningful ways?

As women’s sports becomes mainstream, how can we document our own subcultures? How can we make women’s sports a welcoming community? And how can we make information truly accessible?

The answer: zines.

A zine is a small, usually homemade magazine about a niche topic.

The Seattle Public Library has over 30,000 zines, including a huge collection of Riot grrrl zines. Riot grrrl was an underground feminist punk movement that started in the Pacific Northwest in the 1990s.

They also had hockey zines like Snowbound and women’s sports zines like Girl Jock, which described itself as being for “the athletic lesbian with a political consciousness.”

Reading them felt like opening a time capsule into the subcultures of that era. And it made me realize something: you don’t have to be an artist or a poet to make a zine. Once you start making one, you’re a zinester.

So I Made My Own Zine. I made a PWHL rules zine. It explains basic hockey rules and PWHL-specific rules: basically a little game-day guidebook for new fans.

You can read the digital version, download it and assemble it yourself, or even read it at the Seattle Public Library.

I started this newsletter with the intention of controlling my means of distribution outside of the influence of social media algorithms. How can we all be more intentional with our time? What does communication look like when we aren’t fighting for 15 seconds of somebody’s attention through a phone screen?

I first became interested in DIY culture from Courtney Szto’s book, “Changing On the Fly: Hockey Through the Voices of South Asian Canadians”. Szto discusses how the the Hockey Hall of Fame shapes culture, yet often excludes the stories of marginalized people. According to Szto, DIY heritage institutions can accompany institutional change.

I have long been unsatisfied with the lack of media attention that women’s sports gets. It seems like there’s so many people who want to get into women’s hockey, but the information isn’t presented in an accessible or fun way. I view the entire 365 Hockey Girl project as DIY sports media, filling the gap between the teams and the fans. Is that too presumptuous? Was it a zine all along? - Ava

Support Ava so that she can continue making women's hockey content! Let's make women's hockey fun, accessible, and inclusive! ($5 per month)

USA won it’s 5th straight Gold in para ice hockey, and became the first country to ever win para hockey, women’s hockey, and men’s hockey gold medals in the same year.

Jack Wallace got a hat trick in the gold medal game 😮‍💨

view the game summary or watch the highlights.

… or watch my game recap 😄

Support Ava so that she can continue making women's hockey content! Let's make women's hockey fun, accessible, and inclusive! ($5 per month)