Since the PWHL began, we’ve seen 20 home openers across the eight markets. What happened in this season’s openers, and are there any interesting storylines from teams’ previous openers?

Team trends

Boston Fleet

Record at home: 1–0–0–2 // 5 GF, 5 GA

Boston’s home opener this season took place on November 23, 2025. Aerin Frankel and the Fleet shut out the Victoire 2–0, with goals from Susanna Tapani and the newly appointed captain Megan Keller.

That game marked the team’s first home-opener win in team history, as they fell to Minnesota in their two previous openers. Hilary Knight, now on the Seattle Torrent, scored the lone home-opener goal for the Fleet in 2024–25.

Minnesota Frost

Record at home: 1–0–0–2 // 7 GF, 6 GA

Minnesota faced off against Toronto in the first game of the 2025–26 season, on November 21, 2025. Kendall Coyne Schofield, who scored in the Frost’s last season opener, got the offence rolling, but the team fell to the Sceptres 2–1 .

Despite the offseason shake-ups, the Frost’s offence has remained relatively stable. All the players who’ve scored in their home openers (Grace Zumwinkle, Coyne Schofield, and Dominique Petrie) still play on the team.

Minnesota’s inaugural season opener set the record for the biggest crowd at a women’s hockey game in the United States, with 13,316 people in the stands.

Montréal Victoire

Record at home: 1–1–1–0 // 10 GF, 6 GA

Two of Montréal’s home openers have needed extra time, but their game on November 25, 2025, was a decisive 4–0 win against the New York Sirens. Ann-Renée Desbiens earned her second PWHL shutout, Natálie Mlýnková got her first career goal, Marie-Philip Poulin got her 30th, and Abby Roque scored a goal-of-the-year contender against her former team.

Montréal’s 2024–25 opener, against the Charge, has been the only opener to need a shootout. It yielded only one goal, scored by Poulin.

New York Sirens

Record at home: 2–0–0–1 // 11 GF, 6 GA

New York took home a huge 5–1 win against the Vancouver Goldeneyes on November 29, 2025. Several rookies scored their first PWHL points: Nicole Vallario (1 G), Kristýna Kaltounková (1 G), Anne Cherkowski (2 A), and Casey O’Brien (1 A). This game marked the first home opener in which two non–North American players scored a goal (later that day, Boston’s Tapani and Alina Müller would do the same).

New York is also the only team to have started three different goalies: Abbey Levy in 2024, Corinne Schroeder in 2024–25, and Kayle Osborne in 2025–26.

Ottawa Charge

Record at home: 1–0–1–1 // 7 GF, 9 GA

Ottawa didn’t start their 2025–26 season the way they wanted, with a tough 4–0 loss to the Sirens on November 22, 2025. In net were Gwyneth Philips and Osborne, two goaltenders who began last season as backups and are now full-time starters thanks to the expansion process.

On January 2, 2024, Hayley Scamurra scored the team’s first goal— against Montréal, her current team. Across all three openers, TD Place has welcomed the highest cumulative attendance for Canadian home openers, with 22,140 fans.

Seattle Torrent

Record at home: 0–0–0–1 // 0 GF, 3 GA

Seattle’s inaugural home opener ended in a 3–0 loss to Minnesota, but it broke the U.S. attendance record, drawing 16,014 fans. Rookie forward Marah Wagner made her PWHL debut in her hometown, and the ceremonial puck drop was performed by Welsh soccer player Jess Fishlock, who herself is an inaugural member of a Seattle women’s sports team, Seattle Reign FC.

Toronto Sceptres

Record at home: 1–0–0–2 // 4 GF, 8 GA

On November 29, 2025, Toronto saw the same score (3–1) against the Boston Fleet as their previous home opener—but this time on the losing end. The Sceptres once again started their season with a jailbreak goal, this time from captain Blayre Turnbull.

The game also marked a full-circle moment for Ella Shelton, who scored the league’s historic first goal—against Toronto, at their opener on January 1, 2024.

Vancouver Goldeneyes

Record at home: 0–1–0–0 // 4 GF, 3 GA

The Vancouver Goldeneyes made history on November 21, 2025, as their crowd of 14,958 fans marked the highest attendance for a PWHL team in their primary venue. The team managed a 4–3 overtime win over Seattle, with each Vancouver goal-scorer coming from a different inaugural six team (Sarah Nurse from Toronto, Gabby Rosenthal from New York, Claire Thompson from Minnesota, and Abby Boreen from Montréal).

Standout individual performances

Her home, her crease

Kristen Campbell, Desbiens, and Frankel have each played in six season openers. Desbiens has played in all three of Montréal’s openers, and Frankel has played in all three of Boston’s.

Desbiens, Frankel, Nicole Hensley, Osborne, Maddie Rooney, and Schroeder have each earned a shutout in a team’s opener, but only Desbiens, Frankel, and Rooney were all able to do it in their respective home barns.

A goal-scorer’s touch

Starting the season with a bang

The leader in goals at home-opener games is Zumwinkle of the Minnesota Frost. She recorded the league’s first hat trick in her team’s inaugural home opener on January 6, 2024, along with another goal in Minnesota’s 2024–25 opener, a goal in Boston, and a goal in Seattle.

Alex Carpenter scored all four of her home-opener goals for New York, her former team. At Minnesota’s home opener in 2024–25, she scored two goals, one of which was the overtime winner.

After adding her recent hat trick at Ottawa’s opener, Taylor Girard became the only other player to reach four home-opener goals. She scored her first home-opener goal for PWHL Boston at Montréal’s inaugural season opener.

Sixteen other players have tallied more than one home-opener goal, including Nurse and Laura Stacey, both with three.

Rookies making their mark early

This season, five rookies scored in a home-opening game: Abby Newhook (Boston), Mlýnková (Montréal), Kaltounková and Vallario (New York), and Kiara Zanon (Toronto). They join eight other rookies who scored in previous home openers: Taylor Heise, Petrie, and Zumwinkle (Minnesota); Claire Dalton (Montréal); Rosenthal (New York); Mannon McMahon (Ottawa); and Izzy Daniel and Emma Maltais (Toronto).

Extra-time heroes

Of the four overtime goals in home openers, two were scored by players who no longer play in the league: Amanda Pelkey (PWHL Boston) and Ann-Sophie Bettez (PWHL Montréal). Carpenter and Boreen have also tallied an OT winner each.

Poulin of the Montréal Victoire is the only player to record a shootout goal in a home opener.

Quick numbers

• 145,670 fans in attendance
• 92 goals from 63 unique goal-scorers
• 11 arenas
• 6 shutouts from 6 different goaltenders
• 4 overtimes
• 1 shootout

Home openers are an exciting marker of the new season. This year’s did not disappoint, and the continued breaking of attendance records is an excellent sign of the growth of professional women’s hockey in North America.