Fixtures
| Date | R | Home vs Away | - |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04/27 16:30 | 1 | Ottawa Women vs Montreal Women | View |
| 04/27 18:00 | 1 | Minnesota Women vs Boston Women | View |
| 04/28 17:00 | 1 | New York Women vs Toronto Women | View |
| 04/30 23:00 | 1 | New York Women vs Ottawa Women | View |
| 05/01 23:00 | 1 | Toronto Women vs Minnesota Women | View |
| 05/04 19:30 | 1 | Boston Women vs Montreal Women | View |
| 05/04 20:00 | 1 | New York Women vs Minnesota Women | View |
| 05/05 20:00 | 1 | Toronto Women vs Ottawa Women | View |
Results
| Date | R | Home vs Away | - |
|---|---|---|---|
| 04/24 23:00 | 1 | [6] New York Women vs Montreal Women [3] | 2-5 |
| 04/24 23:00 | 1 | [5] Boston Women vs Ottawa Women [4] | 2-3 |
| 04/24 23:00 | 1 | New York Women vs Toronto Women | PPT. |
| 04/20 23:00 | 1 | Minnesota Women vs Ottawa Women | 0-4 |
| 04/20 19:30 | 1 | [5] Boston Women vs New York Women [6] | 2-1 |
| 04/20 17:00 | 1 | [1] Toronto Women vs Montreal Women [3] | 3-2 |
| 04/19 23:00 | 1 | Montreal Women vs New York Women | PPT. |
| 04/18 23:00 | 1 | [1] Toronto Women vs Boston Women [5] | 1-2 |
| 04/18 23:00 | 1 | [2] Minnesota Women vs Montreal Women [3] | 3-4 |
| 03/25 23:00 | 1 | [5] Boston Women vs New York Women [6] | 2-3 |
| 03/24 20:00 | 1 | [3] Montreal Women vs Minnesota Women [2] | 2-3 |
| 03/23 17:00 | 1 | Toronto Women vs Ottawa Women | 3-5 |
Wikipedia - Professional Women's Hockey League
The Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL; French: Ligue professionnelle de hockey féminin, LPHF) is a professional women's ice hockey league in North America, wholly owned and operated by the Mark Walter Group. It consists of six franchises, three each from Canada and the United States, who play a regular season of matches to earn one of four places in a postseason tournament that determines the champion. Differences between the PWHL and other professional hockey leagues, include a 3-2-1-0 points system, terminations of penalties following a short-handed goal, best-of-five shootouts, and greater restrictions on body checking. The league's matches are broadcast nationally in Canada by the CBC and TSN, their French-language affiliates Radio-Canada and RDS, and Sportsnet. In the United States, it is broadcast in syndication, while worldwide it is streamed on YouTube.
The collapse of the Canadian Women's Hockey League in 2019 led to the establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey Players Association (PWHPA), a non-profit organization that advocated for greater professionalism in women's ice hockey. PWHPA members boycotted existing leagues, including the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), with the goal of establishing a stable, unified professional league, and worked to build a collective bargaining agreement with Mark Walter and Billie Jean King Enterprises. The Mark Walter Group acquired the assets of the PHF following its 2022–23 season. Subsequently, the PWHPA worked with the Mark Walter Group to establish a unified league with new ownership and management. The league's first draft took place in September 2023, and its first season began in January 2024.
History
Antecedents and the PWHPA
Top-level and professional women's hockey in North America has developed in starts and stops since the late twentieth century. The National Women's Hockey League (NWHL) launched in 1999, featuring teams mainly in Ontario and Quebec. Some teams from Western Canada competed intermittently, but a Western Women's Hockey League was formed in 2004. The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) largely replaced the NWHL and ran for 12 seasons, from 2007 to 2019, with teams competing for the Clarkson Cup. The CWHL, which operated on a non-profit basis, did not pay player salaries, but it did offer stipends and bonuses at times as it aspired to become a professional league. However, the league lacked financial stability and it abruptly folded in 2019. A new National Women's Hockey League (later called the Premier Hockey Federation), which did offer player salaries, was established in the United States in 2015, before expanding into Canada in 2020. However, after the dissolution of the CWHL, hundreds of prominent women's players, including Canadian and American Olympians, founded the Professional Women's Hockey Players' Association (PWHPA) and opted to boycott existing leagues in pursuit of a unified, financially stable professional league. In the meantime, the PWHPA attracted partnerships with corporate sponsors and NHL teams, organizing exhibition tournaments to generate support for their goal.
In 2022, the PWHPA entered a partnership with the Mark Walter Group and BJK Enterprises—led by Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter and Billie Jean King, respectively—with the intent to launch a new professional league. In 2023, the two business partners purchased the assets of the Premier Hockey Federation, and the PHF ceased operations. The PWHPA negotiated a collective bargaining agreement ahead of the launch of the new professional league the union had been working towards.
Founding
The establishment of the Professional Women's Hockey League was announced by the Mark Walter Group in August 2023, along with the location of its six charter franchises: Boston, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Montreal, New York City, Ottawa, and Toronto. Teams began constructing their rosters that summer, with an initial ten-day free agency period to sign three players. Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and Emerance Maschmeyer became the league's first players when they signed with Ottawa. The inaugural draft took place in September at the Canadian Broadcasting Centre in Toronto, where Minnesota chose Taylor Heise as the first pick in a fifteen-round, ninety-player draft from a pool of 286 eligible players. Potential franchise nicknames were registered with the United States Patent and Trademark Office in October: Boston Wicked, Minnesota Superior, Montreal Echo, New York Sound, Ottawa Alert, and Toronto Torch. The league announced that, due to time constraints, the teams would not be given nicknames until after the inaugural season, and would wear jerseys featuring the name of the teams' locales in a diagonal wordmark.
Prior to the start of the inaugural season, all six teams congregated at the Utica University Nexus Center in early December for a five day evaluation camp, including scrimmages used to experiment with new rules. The first match took place on January 1, 2024, when Toronto hosted New York at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. New York's Ella Shelton scored the league's first goal en route to a 4–0 win. Its Canadian television audience of 2.9 million viewers was the largest for a sports or entertainment broadcast that day, beating the 2024 NHL Winter Classic. The attendance record for a professional women's ice hockey match would be set three times during the ensuing season: 8,318 at Ottawa's first home game at TD Place Arena on January 2, 13,316 at Minnesota's first home game at the Xcel Energy Center on January 6, and 19,285 at the inaugural "Battle on Bay Street" match at Scotiabank Arena on February 16. The Battle on Bay Street also drew the largest ever crowd for women's ice hockey, surpassing the 18,013 that watched Canada play Finland at the 2013 Women's World Championship.
The PWHL is renowned for its fast-paced and physical gameplay, where players demonstrate their exceptional skating abilities, precise stickhandling, and powerful shots. The tournament features teams composed of dedicated and determined young women who are passionate about the sport and strive to excel on the ice.
Throughout the tournament, teams compete in intense matches, battling it out for victory and the chance to be crowned champions. The games are filled with thrilling moments, as players execute strategic plays, engage in fierce battles for the puck, and showcase their agility and strength.
The PWHL tournament not only provides a platform for these talented athletes to showcase their skills but also serves as a stepping stone for their future careers in hockey. Many players from the PWHL have gone on to play at the collegiate and professional levels, making this tournament a crucial stepping stone in their hockey journey.
Spectators can expect an incredible display of athleticism, teamwork, and sportsmanship as they witness the next generation of female hockey stars in action. The tournament offers an exciting opportunity for fans to support their favorite teams, cheer on their favorite players, and experience the thrill of ice hockey at its finest.
Whether you are a die-hard hockey fan or simply looking for an exhilarating sporting event, the PWHL tournament promises to deliver an unforgettable experience. From the intense on-ice battles to the camaraderie and passion displayed by the players, this tournament is a celebration of the incredible talent and dedication of female athletes in the world of ice hockey.