Three series doubleheaders open season’s second half
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) regular season schedule starts its second half with six teams in action playing six games. The weekend features a trio of doubleheaders with teams who are meeting for the first time in 2022-23 including the first place Boston Pride who visit the Montreal Force, the Connecticut Whale travel to play the Toronto Six, and the Metropolitan Riveters meet the Buffalo Beauts.
Here’s a closer look at the action:
SATURDAY JANUARY 21, 2023
2:00 PM ET – Connecticut Whale (6-5-1) vs Toronto Six (9-1-2)
(ESPN+ & TSN+ with Josh Tolle and Carson Duggan)
Two of the PHF’s top four teams clash for the first time this season with winning streaks intact. Connecticut just recently climbed into fourth place and continue what’s already been a busy week with Tuesday and Wednesday wins over Buffalo where they outscored the Beauts 10-3. As for Toronto, they sit three points back of Boston for first place but have won five in a row, have points in nine straight, and are well rested after a weekend off. T6 leads the all-time series 4-1, but it was the Whale’s 5-0 win on Mar. 20 to close out the 2021-22 campaign that solidified their first regular season title in franchise history. The last time the two teams met in Toronto was Nov. 20-21, 2021 in the first ever PHF games played on Canadian ice. T6 won them both by 5-1 and 3-2 scores. Kennedy Marchment, one of three players from Ontario and five Canadians on the Whale, scored the first ever PHF goal north of the border and enters this series with nine goals in her last six games. She’s tied with Toronto’s Brittany Howard for the PHF lead with 12 goals, while the two are tied for second in the league with 18 points.
3:00 PM ET – Boston Pride (11-2-0) vs Montreal Force (5-5-1)
(ESPN+ & TSN+ with Joe Malfa and Paige Capistran, TVA Sports 2)
A new chapter begins in hockey’s historic rivalry between Boston and Montreal as the Pride and Force meet for the first time on PHF ice. Boston’s first trip to Quebec comes on the heels of four straight wins including a weekend sweep over Buffalo that put them into first place overall. Montreal enters the series in fifth place, fresh off a thrilling 5-4 comeback win over Connecticut in Pittsburgh. The Force hold the league’s second best power play but best be careful against an opportunistic Pride penalty kill unit that torched the Beauts for three shorthanded goals in two games. The Force and Pride are ranked first and second overall in penalty kill efficiency which could make power play goals hard to come by. While this is the first meeting between the two PHF teams, the Pride and the CWHL’s Montreal Canadiennes met on Dec. 31, 2015 in an outdoor exhibition in Boston. Kim Deschênes scored Montreal’s goal in a 1-1 tie alongside Ann-Sophie Bettez, while Jillian Dempsey suited up for the hosts. This time around, keep an eye on Boston star rookie Élizabeth Giguère who returns to her home province to play her first professional games.
7:00 PM ET – Metropolitan Riveters (4-10-0) vs Buffalo Beauts (1-9-2)
(ESPN+ & TSN+ with Josh Tolle and Carson Duggan)
Perhaps the most important points of the weekend are up for grabs between the Metropolitan Riveters and Buffalo Beauts who currently occupy sixth and seventh place in the standings and are in desperate need of a second half surge. The Riveters enter the series with four straight losses but get back on the road where they’ve managed to win three of their four games this season. The Beauts collected four of their five points on home ice during opening weekend but have since lost a franchise record 10 straight games including mid-week matchups in Connecticut. Claudia Kepler showed the Beauts’ no-quit attitude in Wednesday’s contest, sparking a brief comeback with a pair of goals to bring her season total to six in 12 games. Sarah Bujold leads the Riveters with seven goals in 14 games. Both teams have struggled to produce consistent offense and rank lowest in the league in goals for with the Riveters averaging 2.2 per game to the Beauts 2.1. These could be breakthrough games for somebody, since defensively they are also allowing the most goals against with the Riveters averaging 3.6 to the Beauts 4.4. Last season’s overall head-to-head was a split, with both Buffalo games resulting in 3-2 decisions a side.
SUNDAY JANUARY 22, 2023
1:00 PM ET – Boston Pride vs Montreal Force
(ESPN+ & TSN+ with Donny Baarns and Sam Fryman, NESN with Joe Malfa and Paige Capistran, TVA Sports 2)
1:00 PM ET – Metropolitan Riveters vs Buffalo Beauts
(ESPN+ & TSN+ with Josh Tolle and Carson Duggan)
2:00 PM ET – Connecticut Whale vs Toronto Six
(ESPN+ & TSN+ with Josh Eastern and Erica Ayala)
FINAL FIRST MATCHUPS OF THE SEASON
Teams in all three of this weekend’s series are playing each other for the first time this season, which means after Sunday that all teams across the PHF will have played each other at least twice in 2022-23. For these teams in action, it also means they’ll become quite familiar with one another during their push for the playoffs. Connecticut plays Toronto in four of their next seven games, eight for T6. Four of Boston’s next six are against Montreal, while the Force take on the Pride in four of their next nine. The Beauts and Riveters will meet again to wrap up the regular season.
AROUND THE RINKS
This weekend’s Force games will be played at Centre Premier Tech in Rivière-du-Loup, a town of just over 20,000 people on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River, about four hours north of Montreal towards Rimouski. Saturday’s game in Buffalo is ‘Pride Night’ where the Beauts will be wearing specially designed jerseys to support the LGBTQIA+ community. And on Sunday in Toronto, the Six will celebrate Lunar New Year with special guests from their Asian community, kicking off the Year of the Rabbit.
NESN AND PRIDE ANNOUNCE BROADCAST PARTNERSHIP
Bringing the team back to its original television home, NESN and the Boston Pride have announced a new regional broadcast partnership that includes five consecutive games on this season’s schedule. Live coverage begins with Sunday afternoon’s game in Montreal. NESN previously aired Pride games during the team’s first two seasons from 2015-17. NESN 360 users can watch all of the matchups by authenticating with their TV provider or via a direct subscription on an iPhone, Android, Apple TV, Google TV or Fire TV. Fans can purchase a subscription or authenticate with their TV provider at NESN360.com.
T6 SIGN WATTS
The Toronto Six announced a significant addition to their lineup with collegiate superstar Daryl Watts signing a two-year deal. The 23-year-old will make her professional debut with her hometown team after graduating as the second all-time leading scorer in NCAA history recording 297 points in 172 games over five seasons from 2017-22. The forward spent two years at Boston College where she became the first freshman ever to win the Patty Kazmaier Award in 2018, then finished with three seasons at the University of Wisconsin highlighted by a national championship with the Badgers in 2021.
MACDOUGALL TO MONTREAL
Third year forward Autumn MacDougall has quickly found a new home in Montreal after parting ways with Buffalo in a contract release this week. The 25-year-old from Cole Harbour, Nova Scotia signs with the Force having played 34 career games with the Beauts where she recorded 19 points and was the team’s top scorer during the 2021-22 campaign. She reunites with her 2021 teammate, Brooke Stacey, and is the 14th member of her new club who graduated from a U SPORTS program.
BEAUTS OFFICIALLY SIGN KLIMASOVA
After playing both of last weekend’s games on a PTO, forward Iveta Klimášová has officially signed with the Beauts for the remainder of the 2022-23 season. The 25-year-old also suited up for both of the team’s mid-week matchups against Connecticut, bringing her PHF total to 34 appearances. She’s a five-time member of the Slovakian women’s national team who also played the 2019-20 and 2021 seasons in Buffalo where she has amassed 18 points.
ZAFUTO SUSPENDED TWO GAMES
Boston will be without All-Star defender Olivia Zafuto during this weekend’s series against Montreal after receiving a two-game suspension. The supplemental discipline was determined by the PHF Player Safety Committee following automatic review of her major penalty incurred Jan. 15 against Buffalo. The 25-year-old newcomer will be eligible to play in the PHF All-Star game on Jan. 29 as a member of Team USA, and will return to the Pride lineup on Feb. 4 against the Riveters.
WHALE OF AN OFFENSE
Connecticut’s offense was firing on all cylinders Wednesday when they tied a franchise single game record with seven goals in a 7-3 victory over Buffalo. This marks just the third time they’ve lit the lamp at such a rate, and first occurrence since Oct. 23, 2016 when they also beat the Beauts 7-5. Four of the team’s goals came in the first period, which hasn’t been done since Feb.19, 2017. Six Whale players had multi-point games mid-week including Kennedy Marchment with her first career hat-trick, and Justine Reyes with a career-high three-point performance.
GANSER AND HARLEY BACK TO FORT BEAUT
Two members of the Metropolitan Riveters will be in familiar territory when the team arrives at Northtown Center to take on the Beauts. Defender Emilie Harley and forward Kennedy Ganser were both 2021 draft picks by Buffalo where they played their rookie seasons before signing free agent contracts in the summer. Harley is a Syracuse, NY native who has four points in 14 games so far with the Riveters, while Ganser, who hails from Provost, Alberta, has five points in 14 games with her new team.
CREASE CUTS
Boston’s Corinne Schroeder continues to lead the way in the crease with 11 wins, five shutouts, a goals-against-average of 1.86, and save percentage of .946. Three netminders are tied for second with a .916 SV% including Montreal’s Marie-Soleil Deschênes who won her last start in Pittsburgh, and Toronto’s Elaine Chuli who has won five straight starts. She’s likely to face Connecticut’s Abbie Ives who posted her second shutout of the season on Tuesday night against Buffalo and ranks second in the PHF with a 2.44 GAA. Katie Burt got the last two calls between-the-pipes for the Riveters where she’s amassed a 3.51 GAA and .883 SV% compared to Eveliina Mäkinen’s 3.26 GAA and .896 SV%. Buffalo split their mid-week matchups between Lovisa Berndtsson and Tera Hofmann who have started six and three games and have .875 and .885 SV% respectively.
STATS SNAPSHOT
Boston’s Loren Gabel enters the weekend as the PHF scoring leader with 19 points in 11 games. Connecticut’s Kennedy Marchment and Toronto’s Brittany Howard both have 18 points in 12 games. Jade Downie-Landry leads Montreal with 15 points in 11 games, Kelly Babstock and Sarah Bujold both lead the Riveters with 12 points, and Claudia Kepler leads Buffalo with 11 points. Pride captain Jillian Dempsey leads the PHF with four game-winning goals. Howard, Force captain Ann-Sophie Bettez, and Riveters defender Minttu Tuominen are tied with three power play goals each, and Whale forward Taylor Girard has three shorthanded goals. Team shots on goal leaders include Gabel (67), Bujold (62), Howard (55), Marchment (51), Buffalo’s Mikyla Grant-Mentis (43), and Downie-Landry (41). Faceoff leaders on the six competing teams are Connecticut’s Lenka Serdar (.608), Toronto’s Shiann Darkangelo (.589), Babstock (.566), Downie-Landry (.540), Boston’s Taylor Wenczkowski (.508), and Grant-Mentis (.504).
CAREY TOPS THN CHARTS
Commissioner Reagan Carey has been ranked number one on The Hockey News list of Power & Influence in Women’s Hockey. She’s one of four PHF representatives in the Top-10 of the popular publication along with Buffalo Beauts forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis (4), Team and Player Development Advisor Brianna Decker (9), and Toronto Six President Sami-Jo Small (10). Carey also appears at number 89 in this year’s edition of the overall 100. Hear the latest from Carey who was a recent guest on the Big Idea Big Moves podcast with Jamie Allison where she discusses leadership and elevating women’s sports.
Fans in the United States can enjoy live PHF action all season long exclusively on ESPN+ for just $9.99 a month (or $99.99 per year) at ESPN.com, ESPNplus.com or on the ESPN App (mobile and connected devices). In Canada, live coverage of the PHF is available to TSN subscribers through the network’s five television feeds as well as live streaming via TSN+ available on TSN.ca and the TSN app. PHF games that are part of the ESPN International distribution network may be available in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa via ESPN Player, in Latin America via Star+, the Caribbean through ESPN Player via the ESPN App, and Oceania through Watch ESPN via the ESPN App. All Montreal Force games are available in French exclusively on TVA Sports.
Cover photo by Michelle Jay / The Boston Pride
