What I saw in the PWHL this week: scepters achieve the much needed victory, but what didn’t work?

Toronto Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull knows what a competition you have to win looks like.

She played several NCAA Tournament performances with the Wisconsin Badgers and won three world championships with Team Canada and Olympic gold in 2022. Turnbull is as competitive as can and a natural leader.

So when she called the Matinee on Saturday in the Scotiabank Arena against the New York Sirens a competition that you have to win for Toronto, it was sincerity – not an exaggeration.

“We are now in a place where we have to win,” she said Friday afternoon prior to the game. “Based on where we are in the rankings, we must approach every competition in this way in the coming period.”

Toronto came into action on Saturday with the PWHLThe worst record for a third of the 2024-2025 season.

In their despair to win – and with an expected full room for the second edition of the “Battle on Bay Street” in the Scotiabank Arena – Sceptres dealt with the game as if the game 5 of the Walter Cup Finals were.

“Instead of allowing everyone to put the pressure on you and the pressure of the environment, they have decided to put a little bit of pressure on themselves,” explains Toronto coach Troy Ryan. “It puts control more in your hands instead of taking over the environment and atmosphere the game for you.”

The approach worked well and Toronto defeated New York 4-2 to 19,102 fans-the largest audience of the season and third place of all time in the short history of the competition. Hannah Miller led Toronto with two goals – and now leads the competition in scoring (6) – while Sarah Nurse scored the competition winner.

It was a huge victory for Toronto, and although the team is still in last place in the rankings, there is no invaluable mountain ahead.

Toronto is only two points behind New York, which occupies the fourth and final play-off place with a lot of hockey (18 games) to play. In a competition of six teams with three points for a regular victory, Toronto can quickly overtake the backlog if the team can string a few victories to each other.

And – without putting too much pressure on a player who has undergone surgery outside season – Natalie Spooner seems to approach her return to the setup, which could be a huge advantage for Toronto.

There is no official timeline from Monday morning, but the ruling MVP from the competition has skated with the team.

Here are a few tips from a relatively quiet week in the PWHL.

What did not work for Toronto?

Before skeptes can make any form of profit, there are some obvious areas that require improvement. First, their start is.

In four of the six regular defeats of the team, it was scored within the first six minutes, which means that Toronto spends a lot of time chasing the game.

“I don’t think we had many good starts this year,” said Turnbull. “It’s something we often talk about and I don’t think we have the answer. (For me it’s all about mentality and being ready to go with the first Puck drop. “

Some of those early goals were honestly weak. This brings us to the following problem: Toronto‘s number 1 goalkeeper Kristen Campbell has a hard time.

She had a slow start last season and turned her game to become goalkeeper of the year. But she is already eight games in her 2024-2025 season and has not yet shown really sustainable signs of improvement.

Her goals against average (2.88) and rescue percentage (0.887) are the second last of the goalkeepers who played at least five games. In order not to shift everything on Campbell, because Toronto has had some defensive problems this season, but the skeptics still allow the least shots per match (25) in the PWHL.

Campbell also had to collect three or more goals in five of its eight starts, which is still exacerbated by Toronto’s lack of consistent attacking production to dig out of that kind of gaps. The Sceptres Scoring on average 2.4 goals per match this season, but that calculation does not work in their favor with 2.9 goals per match.

Raygan Kirk, who started on the Must-Win competition on Saturday, did well in her four starts (2-1-1). But Ideally, Campbell thinks its game, otherwise Toronto will have to ask a lot of his starting goalkeeper.

Would an SDHL partnership be coming?

One of the fans in the Scotiabank Arena on Saturday was Angelica Lindeberg, Chief Commercial and Chief Operating Officer of the Swedish Women’s Hockey League. She was in the city for a few days to meet the PWHL managers, to watch the competition and ultimately to strengthen the relationship between the two competitions.

The current version of the SDHL has been active since 2016-2017 and has 10 teams throughout Sweden. Lindeberg said that the competition has grown in recent years, but since the launch in January 2024 has difficulty attracting a large audience such as the PWHL.

“We have been running the competition for nine years and we have done many good things, but we have trouble with the audience,” Lindeberg said. “The PWHL is doing very well and we thought it would be a good idea to come here and to get new inspiration.”

The SDHL has been attracting top players for a long time, such as the Finnish Petra Nieminen and the Swedish Hanna Olson. The competition, of which the ten teams have individual owners, pays his players, but the salaries vary and are not often announced. Star players such as Ottawa defender Ronja Savolainen and Boston defender Daniela Pejšová have left the SDHL for the PWHL, but Lindeberg regards it all as positive for the overall health of the women’s game.

“We are happy that the PWHL exists,” she said. “It is good that there is now something more that you can dream of than just being in the SDHL. We will never be able to compete with the PWHL, because we do not have that kind of investment.

“It’s good for them to be the best and we can be the best.”

The SDHL and PWHL currently have no formal partnership, but a relationship between the two parties would be logical given that there are currently few full -time schedule places in the PWHL. Without formal farm systems or secondary competitions (such as the AHL or Echl), players who do not make the PWHL grilles are retired or playing in the Swedish competition.

“If a player is not yet ready to play in the PWHL,” said Lindeberg, “we can be the competition where players can come.”

A new executive director of PWHLPA

The Professional Women’s Hockey League Players Association has announced that Malaika Underwood will be the next executive director of the trade union from 3 March.

By one press releaseUnderwood has more than twenty years of experience in university and professional sports and has developed “strategies and runs that help athletes, organizations and brands to access commercial value.”

The PWHLPA said that Underwood will concentrate on “sustainable growth, strengthening membership of the trade union and building strategic partnerships to raise professional women’s hockey and athletes who promote its success.”

“When I think of the PWHL players, I see pioneers who have reached historic milestones and have again defined what is possible in the professional women’s sport,” Underwood said. “I am determined to strengthen their voice, to protect their rights and to celebrate their contributions to the game.”

Underwood succeeds Brian Burke, former NHL director, who led the trade union since its foundation in 2023.

It is not unexpected that Burke plays the role. He initially signed a two -year contract as an executive director According to The Globe and Mailhoped that a woman would take over the job if his term of office was over.

“From day one it was absolutely necessary that the Leadership Trade Union would find for the long term that was able to support and build what the players fought for,” said Burke in a statement. “Malaika Underwood is that leader. Her vision, expertise and dedication to players make her the perfect choice. ”

This article originally appeared in Athletics.

NHL, Ladies hockey

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