PWHL Ottawa: Record crowd to attend Ottawa’s first PWHL game on Tuesday

It will be a historic night at the Arena at TD Place, as Ottawa’s PWHL team plays its home opener and first ever game.

Approximately 8,000 fans are expected to attend the PWHL game between Ottawa and Montreal at 7 p.m., setting a North American professional women’s hockey record for attendance.

The game is the first for both Ottawa and Montreal in the new Professional Women’s Hockey League, and the second game of the PWHL season.

The moment is still sinking in for Ottawa’s team captain Brianne Jenner.

“We’ve been training together since Nov. 15 and we’re ready for game day,” Jenner told CTV News on Tuesday. “It’s a dream for those who came before us. I hope everyone who dedicated so much time to our sport are celebrating today and yesterday with the first ever game.”

Former uOttawa and Carleton University hockey coach Shelley Coolidge will be playing a special role tonight.

“I have the privilege and honour to drop the puck with Mayor Sutcliffe. For me to have this opportunity to present the pioneers is just a real honour,” she said.

18-year-old Nicki Chartrand was one of the lucky ones to score a ticket and squeezed in a brief skate of her own before she made her way to TD Arena.

“I’m so excited I’m going with my friend. We played together for so many years. Just seeing a professional league is going to be so exciting for us and we’re going to be cheering super loud,” she said.

Thousands will be keen to see who will score the first goal for Ottawa’s professional team and if they’ll get the win.

“It’s my five-year-old self; I sprung out of bed and I’m like, ‘it’s game day, I got to go,” Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod told CTV Morning Live Tuesday morning.

MacLeod says she will not try to downplay the significance of PWHL Ottawa’s first game in front of a sold out crowd.

“You let them love it, you let them live it,” MacLeod said. “This is our market, these are our fans. How lucky are we? So that’s not lost on us that we get that energy, that opportunity and we’re going to live that up tonight.”

Here is what you need to know about the PWHL Ottawa team.

First game

PWHL Ottawa hosts Montreal at 7 p.m. at the Arena at TD Place.

The game is officially sold out.

You can watch the game on TSN and RDS.

Record attendance

A record crowd of approximately 8,000 fans are expected at TD Place for the first game Tuesday night. The league says the crowd will set a new single-game record for a North American professional women’s hockey game.

The current record was set last February, when the Professional Women’s Hockey Players’ Association had 4,301 fans at the Meridian Centre in St. Catharines, Ont.

The PWHL

The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is the new professional women’s hockey league in North America.

There are six original teams in the PWHL: Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto, Minnesota, Boston and New York.

The inaugural season

Ottawa’s PWHL team will play 24 games during its inaugural season, with the season running from Jan. 2 to May 5.

All 12 home games will be played at the Arena at TD Place.

PWHL Toronto will make three visits to Ottawa this season, while PWHL Montreal is in Ottawa twice.

The playoffs will begin the week of May 6.

PWHL Ottawa’s captain and alternates

Brianne Jenner wears the ‘C’ for Ottawa’s PWHL team this season.

Jenner has represented Canada on the international stage, and was named the MVP of the women’s hockey tournament at Beijing 2022.

Forward Emily Clark and defender Jincy Roese will serve as alternate captains.

Jenner and Clark were among the first players signed by the PWHL Ottawa team when the league formed in September.

Ottawa’s roster

The Ottawa roster will have players from six countries: Canada, the United States, Czechia, Germany, Hungary and Japan.

The roster includes first round pick Savannah Harmon of the United States, Canadian national team goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer and defender Ashton Bell, U.S. national team members Hayley Scamurra, Becca Gilmore and Gabbie Hughes, Czechia national team captain Aneta Tejralova and team member Katerina Mrazova, and Germany national team goaltender Sandra Abstreiter. Japan national team member Akane Shiga is also on PWHL Ottawa. 

Ottawa’s Savannah Harmon, right, from the PWHPA, poses for a photo with former American tennis player Billie Jean King after being selected fifth overall during the first round of the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League draft in Toronto, on Monday, Sept. 18, 2023. (Spencer Colby/THE CANADIAN PRESS)

PWHL Ottawa coach

Carla MacLeod is PWHL Ottawa’s head coach for the inaugural season.

MacLeod was a two-time Olympic gold medallist with Canada and won an IIHF Women’s World Championship gold. She spent the past two seasons as head coach of the University of Calgary women’s hockey team, and coaches Czechia’s women’s national ice hockey team.

The assistant coaches are Hayley Irwin and Cassea Schols.

PWHL Rules

The Professional Women’s Hockey League released its rule book for the 2024 season on Monday, with some changes from the NHL.

The rule changes include:

• If a team serving a minor penalty scores a short-handed goal, the penalty ends.
• The PWHL adopted a 3-2-1 point system for the season. Teams receive three points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime or shootout win and one point for an overtime or shootout loss.
• If the game goes to a shootout, the shootout will consist of five shots per team, instead of three.

If the score is tied at the end of three periods, there will be five minutes of three-on-three hockey before going to a shootout if necessary.

Rosters will consist of 21 players – 19 skaters and two goaltenders.

Local players in the PWHL

The PWHL Ottawa team has no local players on its roster, but there are several players from the region playing in the PWHL inaugural season.

Jamie Lee Rattray of Kanata is on PWHL Boston.

Kennedy Marchment of Marmora, Ont. is on PWHL Montreal.

Goaltender Lindsey Post of Chelsea, Que. is on PWHL New York.

Ottawa’s Samantha Cogan (forward), Rebecca Leslie (forward) and Erica Howe (goaltender) will play for PWHL Toronto this season. Jess Jones of Picton, Ont. (forward) is also on PWHL Toronto.