Four teams celebrate Thanksgiving weekend with a win
The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) regular season continued over the holiday weekend and featured a pair of series splits between the top ranked Boston Pride and Toronto Six, and in the home debut of the Montreal Force against the Metropolitan Riveters.
Here’s a closer look at the results, top performers, and notable highlights:
SATURDAY NOVEMBER 26, 2022
Game 11
Metropolitan Riveters 3
Montreal Force 5
Box Score | Highlights
Jade Downie-Landry delivered the top individual performance of the season with a hat-trick and five points, while captain Ann-Sophie Bettez scored twice with an assist in Montreal’s historic home opener.
Game 12
Toronto Six 2
Boston Pride 3 OT
Box Score | Highlights
McKenna Brand scored the overtime winner 1:34 into the extra frame to cap a two-point effort and extend Boston’s winning-streak to five-straight games to start the season.
SUNDAY NOVEMBER 27, 2022
Game 13
Metropolitan Riveters 3
Montreal Force 2
Box Score | Highlights
Kelly Babstock scored the decisive goal inside the final minute of regulation to lift the Riveters over the Force and earn goaltender Eveliina Mäkinen a victory in her PHF debut.
Game 14
Toronto Six 7
Boston Pride 3
Box Score | Highlights
The Toronto Six offense exploded for a PHF season-high seven goals including two from both Michela Cava and Brittany Howard to hand the Pride their first loss in six games.
STANDINGS THROUGH NOVEMBER
The Boston Pride (5-1-0) may have suffered their first setback of the season by only earning two of a possible six points with their overtime victory and regulation loss, however remain in first place in the overall standings with 13 points through three full weekends of November action. The Toronto Six (4-1-1) gained some ground with four points to bring their total to 12 and now trail top spot by just one point through even games. The Metropolitan Riveters (2-3-0) and Montreal Force (2-2-0) both added three points with regulation wins and now sit third and fourth place respectively with six and five points each. The next three ranked teams were all inactive over the weekend including the Buffalo Beauts (1-0-1) who have four points, the Minnesota Whitecaps (0-2-2) with two points, and the Connecticut Whale (0-1-0) with no points to date.
DOWNIE-LANDRY DAZZLES
Jade Downie-Landry has set the early season standard when it comes to top single game performances. The five points by the 27-year-old Montreal newcomer on Saturday, powered by three goals and two assists, is also one of the best all-time and just shy of the PHF record of six points that Mikyla Grant-Mentis set last season with Toronto. Six other players through the league’s first seven seasons produced five-point efforts including current Riveters captain Madison Packer with two goals and three assists on December 29, 2019 and Whitecaps defender Amanda Boulier who recorded five assists on October 12, 2019. The only other five-point game to feature a hat-trick was on January 27, 2017 by Boston’s Meghan Duggan. Downie-Landry’s breakout came in just her and the franchise’s third career appearance. The only other similar instance in PHF history was during the inaugural season when Brianna Decker recorded a hat-trick in Boston’s third ever game played October 25, 2015.
BET ON BETTEZ
There will be no shortage of historic moments during Montreal’s expansion season, and a very good chance that Ann-Sophie Bettez will be part of them. The Force captain scored the first goal in franchise history during opening weekend action in Buffalo, then came through in the clutch once again by scoring the team’s first ever goal on Quebec ice in Saturday’s 5-3 triumph over the Riveters. Her three-point performance also included the game-winning goal for good measure.
THUNSTROM SCORES 50
Allie Thunstrom added a major milestone to her growing PHF legacy on Sunday by scoring her 50th career regular season goal in her 70th career game. The historic tally came at the 3:20 mark of the second period, and in true Thunstrom form it was an impressive display of speed and skill to burn past the defense and make a move on goal. This marks the second goal in six games for the new Boston forward who led the PHF in caps last season with 18 in 20 contests as a member of Minnesota. She also scored a single season record of 24 in 24 games during the 2019-20 campaign, and began her career with six in 16 games for the Whitecaps in 2018-19. The 34-year-old from Maplewood, MN becomes the third player in PHF history to score 50, following new teammate Jillian Dempsey and Riveters captain Madison Packer who both achieved the feat last season and currently have 58 and 57 career goals respectively. Dempsey’s half century marker came in career game number 99, while Packer’s was scored in game 101.
FIVE FIRST CAREER PHF GOALS
Fanni Gasparics made history on a number of fronts Saturday when she scored at the 6:27 mark of the first period in Montreal. Not only was it the first career goal for the Riveters forward making her fourth appearance of the season, but her power play marker counted as the first ever PHF goal scored in the province of Quebec, and also the first ever PHF goal scored by a Hungarian player. Also on Saturday, Boston’s Becca Gilmore returned to the Pride lineup after competing for the U.S. National Women’s Team in the Rivalry Series and scored her first career PHF goal in her third career game. Three more newcomers scored their first career PHF goals on Sunday including Montreal defender Christine Deaudelin in her fourth career game, along with Toronto defender Dominika Lásková and forward Lexi Templeman, both in their sixth career games.
FIRST WIN FOR MAKINEN
Goaltender Eveliina Mäkinen made her PHF debut on Sunday for the Riveters and emerged victorious with 25 saves in the 3-2 decision over Montreal. She faced a balanced attack of nine shots across each period along with four power play opportunities for the opposition. The 27-year-old from Kiukainen, Finland is just the second netminder from her country to record a PHF win between-the-pipes following Connecticut’s Meeri Räisänen who won twice for the Whale during the 2018-19 season.
BABSTOCK AND BRAND
Riveters forward Kelly Babstock and Boston’s McKenna Brand have a lot in common when it comes to PHF statistics. For starters, both finished the weekend with two points and both scored game-winning goals that led their teams to 3-2 victories. And when you look at career totals, the pair are currently locked at 79 points each which puts them in a tie for fourth place all-time. Babstock has a one-goal edge over her counterpart with 35 goals and 44 assists in 93 regular season contests, while Brand’s 34 goals and 45 assists have been produced over 73 games.
WHEN TOP TEAMS TANGLE
For the second year in a row an early season battle between Boston and Toronto had first place implications and provided similar results. Their first encounter of the 2021-22 campaign also required extra time with Boston winning 2-1 in a shootout compared to this year’s 3-2 overtime victory on Saturday. Then we saw a flood of offense in the rematch as the Pride closed last season’s opening series with an 8-2 decision compared to the 7-3 T6 triumph on Sunday. With four of their last six regular season meetings going to overtime, coupled with back-to-back semifinal showdowns, the March 11-12 series to close out the 2022-23 calendar will surely be another spectacle.
GREAT EIGHTS
Following the completion of November’s regular season games there is a tie atop the PHF scoring race and eight points is the magic number. Montreal’s Jade Downie-Landry vaulted herself into the mix with her big weekend and has four goals and four assists through four games, which equals Toronto forward Leah Lum’s line in six games. Sarah Bujold has five goals and three assists in five games for the Riveters, and Toronto’s Brittany Howard has seven goals and one assist in six appearances. There’s also a total of eight players with points-per-game averages over 1.0 at this stage including the aforementioned four along with Buffalo’s Anjelica Diffendal and Claudia Kepler who each have three points in two games, plus Montreal’s Ann-Sophie Bettez and Boston’s Loren Gabel who both have five points in four games.
MERCI MONTREAL
If this weekend’s games were any indication of what’s in store for the Force in Montreal and across the province of Quebec, then the team’s expansion season will be fun for many new PHF fans. Over 3,700 enjoyed the team’s first two games including a crowd of 2,876 at Centre 21.02 for the home debut which is believed to be a PHF regular season record. Another 871 packed Aréna Raymond-Bourque on Sunday, with both games near 80% capacity of their venues.
Next weekend the Force travel to Aréna Conrad-Parent in Sept-Îles where they’ll welcome the Whale for two games Dec. 3-4. The other doubleheader matchup features the Whitecaps and Riveters in Minnesota. All of the action is available across the United States live on ESPN+ and in Canada at TSN.ca. Both Montreal games will broadcast in French on TVA Sports.
Cover photo by Arianne Bergeron
