PWHL regular season ends with single-day attendance record
Ottawa’s Gwyneth Philips named PWHL Player of the Week presented by SharkNinja
NEW YORK AND TORONTO (April 27, 2026) – The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) capped a record-setting 2025-26 regular season with a new single-day attendance benchmark of 42,887 fans across Saturday’s final four games of the 120-game schedule. The action-packed day saw the Montréal Victoire secure first place, the Ottawa Charge clinch the fourth and final playoff berth, the Vancouver Goldeneyes earn the first overall pick in the 2026 PWHL Entry Draft, and Minnesota Frost alternate captain Kelly Pannek claim the Points Leader and Top Goal Scorer Awards. The stage is set for the 2026 PWHL Walter Cup Playoffs, presented by SharkNinja, beginning Thursday.
SINGLE-DAY ATTENDANCE RECORD
Saturday’s record of 42,887 fans was punctuated by a sold-out crowd of 17,151 at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena in the final game of the season and counts as the seventh largest attendance of the 2025-26 campaign. The PWHL’s previous single-day attendance record of 36,868 was set in three games played on Dec. 27, 2025. The 27 games played in April averaged 10,214 fans for the highest monthly average in PWHL history. Attendance in 120 games of the 2025-26 regular season totaled 1,116,497 fans for an average of 9,304, more than a 28% increase over average attendance across the entire 2024-25 season, including playoffs.
PLAYOFF MATCHUPS SET
Montréal’s shootout win over Seattle on Saturday secured first place in the PWHL standings, and on Sunday, the Victoire selected the third-place Minnesota Frost as its semifinal opponent. Both teams are the only two in PWHL history to qualify for the playoffs in all three seasons. The Frost have never lost a playoff series, winning back-to-back Walter Cup titles, while the Victoire have never won a playoff series. Ottawa clinched the fourth and final playoff berth with a 3-0 win over the Toronto Sceptres on Saturday and return to the playoffs for the second straight season after advancing to last year’s finals. They will face the second-place Boston Fleet who return to the playoffs for the first time since competing in the inaugural season finals. The lower seed has won every playoff series in PWHL history. Click here for the final standings.
THREE-TIME CHAMPIONS AND DOUBLE GOLD
All four playoff teams have players with two Walter Cup rings which means at least one three-time champion will be crowned in 2026. Minnesota returns nine players from its back-to-back titles in captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, alternates Kelly Pannek and Lee Stecklein, defender Natalie Buchbinder, forwards Claire Butorac, Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle, and goaltenders Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney. Each of the three other teams has one former Frost who won back-to-back titles including Boston’s Liz Schepers, Montréal’s Maggie Flaherty, and Ottawa’s Michela Cava. All four teams also have members of the U.S. Olympic team that won gold in Milan, meaning at least one player will be the first to win a Walter Cup and Olympic gold medal in the same season. The list includes Minnesota’s Coyne Schofield, Heise, Pannek, Stecklein, Zumwinkle and Britta Curl-Salemme; Boston’s Aerin Frankel, Megan Keller, and Haley Winn; Ottawa’s Rory Guilday and Gwyneth Philips; Montréal’s Hayley Scamurra. Click here for more about the PWHL Walter Cup Playoffs.
VANCOUVER EARNS FIRST OVERALL PICK
Vancouver will select first overall in the 2026 PWHL Entry Draft by virtue of finishing first in the PWHL’s ‘Gold Plan’ standings which determine the draft order of selection among non-playoff teams. The Goldeneyes secured a 4-3 overtime win over the Frost on Saturday to bring their post-elimination point total to five, including two wins. The Torrent needed a win against the Victoire to secure the pick but finished with just one win among their five post-elimination points. This was the first time in league history where multiple teams competed to select first overall in the draft and the first time the team with the top pick did not finish in last place. Click here for the draft order of selection standings.
PHILIPS’ SHUTOUT PUNCHES CHARGE PLAYOFF TICKET
Philips, the reigning Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award recipient, is returning to the postseason after a 41-save shutout performance for the Charge on Saturday and has been named the PWHL Player of the Week presented by SharkNinja. The 25-year-old from Athens, OH, finished the season with four straight wins, including two last week where she posted a 0.47 goals-against-average and .985 save percentage between her 3-0 shutout over the Sceptres and 2-1 overtime victory against the Fleet on Wednesday. Philips set PWHL single-season records with 28 appearances, 1643:15 minutes played, 844 shots faced, and 786 saves. Her 16 wins rank third and her three shutouts are tied for fourth. Click here to see all PWHL results.
FROST RE-WRITE OFFENSIVE RECORDS
Minnesota finished the season with a record 91 goals and the league’s top three scorers, led by a new single-season record of 33 points by Pannek, including her league leading 16 goals. Heise (13G, 17A) is the second player all-time to record 30 points in a season, and Curl-Salemme’s 29 points included a single-season record of 18 assists. Zumwinkle (13G, 10A) and Coyne Schofield (12G, 11A) both cracked the top 10 with 23 points, with the Frost’s collective five players with 10 or more goals and 20 or more points both two higher than any other team in PWHL history. The team’s three players averaging a point per game or more, including Pannek (1.10), Heise (1.00), and Coyne Schofield (1.00), is more than the league saw in the first two seasons combined. The captain’s plus-22 rating also set a new single-season benchmark. Click here for PWHL leaders.
FRANKEL, DESBIENS SET GOALTENDING RECORDS
A new single-season wins record of 19 is shared by Frankel and Montréal’s Ann-Renée Desbiens, while the Boston netminder capped her season with a record eighth shutout on Saturday by turning aside all 30 shots faced in the 4-0 win over New York, one of 30 blanks across the PWHL representing exactly 25% of all games. The duo assembled the two best statistical seasons on record between the pipes, with Desbiens’ 1.11 GAA and .955 SV% just fractions ahead of Frankel’s 1.17 and .953. For their careers, Desbiens finishes her third season with 41 wins and eight shutouts to Frankel’s 39 wins and 10 shutouts, both the top two totals in league history. Click here to see this season’s goaltending leaders.
JAQUES AND KELLER RECORD 50 CAREER POINTS
The top two scoring defenders in the PWHL this season also became the first-ever at the position to record 50 career points among the league’s 18 half-century club members. Vancouver’s Sophie Jaques reached the milestone with an assist last Tuesday and then set a new single-season record for goals by a defender with her ninth on Saturday, the overtime winner to beat the Frost, becoming the first defender in league history to post multiple 20-point seasons and to lead her team in scoring. Her 52 career points (18G, 34A) in 77 games is two ahead of Keller’s 50 (16G, 34A) across 84 contests, with the Boston captain picking up two assists Saturday to reach the milestone and top all defenders with 22 points (7G, 15A) in 30 games in 2025-26. Her 22 points tie the single-season record among rearguards set last season by Jaques and Toronto’s Renata Fast. Click here to see all top scoring defenders.
O’BRIEN, DEFENSIVE TRIO LEAD ROOKIE SCORING RACE
New York’s Casey O’Brien finished atop the rookie scoring race with 22 points (7G, 15A) in 28 games, good for the second-highest rookie point total in league history behind teammate Sarah Fillier’s 29 points last season. Three defenders tied for second in rookie scoring, sharing a new benchmark for first-year players at the position. Winn (5G, 14A), Montréal’s Nicole Gosling (3G, 16A), and Minnesota’s Kendall Cooper (2G, 17A) all finished with 19 points, with Cooper’s 17 assists setting new single-season records for rookies and all defenders. First-overall pick Kristýna Kaltounková led all rookies with 11 goals in a season limited to just 21 games due to injury, as the Sirens led the PWHL with 62 points from its rookies. Click here to see all top scoring rookies.
CARPENTER RECORDS THIRD STRAIGHT 20-POINT SEASON
Seattle’s Alex Carpenter scored on Saturday to finish her first season as a member of the Torrent with 20 points (12G, 8A) in 30 games, making her the only player in PWHL history to record 20 or more points in each of the league’s three seasons. Her contributions extended to the faceoff circle where she set new single-season benchmarks for wins (440) and attempts (745). With 63 career points, including 31 career goals, Carpenter is one of nine 60-point scorers and five 30-goal scorers in league history. Of the group, only Toronto’s Daryl Watts has three consecutive seasons of 10 or more goals. Click here for all-time PWHL leaders.
POULIN RETURNS TO ACTION
At the top of the all-time scoring list through three seasons is Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who returned to the lineup Saturday following a 10-game absence to injury. Offensively, she picked up right where she left off with an assist to extend her point streak to five games dating back to Jan. 28. Her all-time leading point total stands at 67, including a career-leading 38 goals in 70 games, also ranking first with a career points-per-game average of 0.96.
SCAMURRA HAT TRICK SETS SEVERAL RECORDS
The sixth hat trick of the campaign and 19th all-time in regular season action, scored by Scamurra last Tuesday, was unlike any other in PWHL history. The Victoire forward netted her trio in a span of 2:44 to set the record for the fastest three goals by a player and also marked the first time a team has scored three times with an extra attacker. The only other team this season to score multiple 6-on-5 goals in a game was Vancouver, just three days earlier in their comeback against Seattle. Unfortunately for Scamurra, her hat trick was also the first in PWHL history scored in a losing cause.
TAPANI LEADS CONSECUTIVE GAME STREAKS
Fleet forward Susanna Tapani is one of 17 players to play a full three seasons, but the only one with 86 career regular-season games played after suiting up for an additional two in the inaugural season when traded from Minnesota to Boston. Ten players have played all 84 games entirely with the same team: Boston’s Keller, Hannah Brandt, and Jamie Lee Rattray; Minnesota’s Pannek; Ottawa’s Emily Clark; and Toronto’s Jesse Compher, Maggie Connors, Kali Flanagan, Emma Maltais, and Blayre Turnbull. The other six players with 84 games split between multiple teams include Cava (OTT/VAN/MIN), Jessie Eldridge (BOS/SEA/NY), Denisa Křížová (NY/MIN), Savannah Harmon (TOR/OTT), Sidney Morin (MIN/BOS), and Emma Woods (TOR/NY).
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Seattle rookie defender Emily Zumwinkle made her PWHL debut on Saturday, with the 22-year-old from Excelsior, MN, following in older sister Grace’s footsteps to form the first set of siblings to see action in a PWHL season. It’s not the only family connection on the Torrent, as the team’s co-scoring leader Julia Gosling wrapped up her second season Saturday playing opposite younger cousin and rookie Nicole. The London, ON, duo each had two points in four head-to-head games this season.
OLYMPIC COUNT TOTALS 64
Finnish defender Sini Karjalainen played her first two PWHL games last week with Vancouver to bring the league’s total to 64 players who competed at the Olympic Winter Games Milano Cortina. She’s one of three players, along with Italian defender Nadia Mattivi of Montréal and Czech defender Noemi Neubauerová of Boston, to join the league after the tournament and prior to the Mar. 31 roster freeze. By country, the league’s 2026 Olympians are from Canada (23), United States (16), Czechia (9), Finland (5), Sweden (4), Germany (3), Italy (2), Switzerland (2).
DARKANGELO NAMED INTACT IMPACT AWARD RECIPIENT
Victoire forward Shiann Darkangelo is the Intact Impact Award recipient for the month of March, recognizing her consistent leadership and the impact she brings to her team and to the league. Through the PWHL’s partnership with Intact Insurance, a $5,000 donation will be made on her behalf to the LS7 Foundation, an initiative founded by teammate Laura Stacey, which helps the next generation find their passion in sport by having fun and staying active.
PLAYOFF SCHEDULE (FIRST FOUR GAMES)
Thursday, April 30, 2026
Game 1: Ottawa at Boston (Tsongas Center) at 7 p.m. ET
- Canada: TSN
- U.S. (In-Market): NESN+
- U.S. (Out of Market): Scripps Sports
Saturday, May 2, 2026
Game 1: Minnesota at Montréal (Place Bell) at 2 p.m. ET
- Canada: Prime Video
- U.S. (In-Market): FOX 9+
- U.S. (Out of Market): Scripps Sports
Saturday, May 2, 2026
Game 2: Ottawa at Boston (Tsongas Center) at 7 p.m. ET
- Canada: TSN
- U.S. (In-Market): NESN
- U.S. (Out of Market): Scripps Sports
Tuesday, May 5, 2026
Game 2: Minnesota at Montréal (Place Bell) at 7 p.m. ET
- Canada: Prime Video
- U.S. (In-Market): FOX 9+
- U.S. (Out of Market): Scripps Sports
Fans around the world can continue to follow every game live via the PWHL YouTube channel and thepwhl.com, with the exception of Canada, and in Czechia and Slovakia — where Nova Sport will continue to carry games locally. Additional U.S. out of market over-the-air partners may be added prior to each game.