Aerin Frankel: The Goalie You Should Be Talking About
- Caitlyn Wagner
- 9 hours ago
- 4 min read
If you’re a hockey fan, then you’re well aware of the discourse of goalies: if your team loses badly, the goalie is the one to blame, but if they win, the forwards are praised.
… What? You don’t think that makes sense. After all, goalies are one of the most important parts of a hockey team, and we think they need a little more appreciation.
Of all goalies, no one deserves this honor more than Aerin Frankel. The Boston Fleet netminder has seven shutouts thus far into the season, has posted a 0.954 save percentage (SV%), and is, safe to say, someone we should all be talking about.
Olympic Performance
If you haven’t heard about the U.S Women’s hockey team at the Olympics, first of all – go do that. They had an incredible run at the 2026 Winter Olympics in February, and beyond capturing a gold medal, they also set multiple records. (And captured our hearts while they were at it!)
Aerin Frankel was a huge part of their incredible success. Through the entire tournament, Team USA’s starting goalie let in only 2 goals – one in the preliminary round and one in the Gold Medal game. Team USA played 6 games, and thanks to Frankel’s incredible performance, their goal differential was a whopping +19 by the end of the tournament. In fact, Frankel’s stretch of 5 games not allowing a single goal was an Olympic record, and helped her team breeze into the Gold Medal game.
Frankel’s impressive Olympic run isn’t done there. She outshone everyone in nearly every category: she played the most minutes (though admittedly did play the most games of any goalie), had the highest SV%, allowed the fewest goals, and faced the most shootouts. Despite impressive performances from other goalies, Frankel’s dominating run at the 2026 games is memorable beyond her SV% or goals allowed. The sheer dominance she played with was beyond impressive – anyone would be nervous facing Marie Philip Poulin or Natalie Spooner in overtime, but Frankel’s composure in the crease led her team to a gold medal and helped them pull off one of the most dominant performances in ice hockey history. (In our opinions, anyway!)
Translation to Boston
At International tournaments, adrenaline is high, and sometimes you're playing for a little more. It’s not unheard of for goalies, especially, to put up better numbers in a tournament like the Olympics and then cool off slightly as they return to their regular teams. In fact, given just how good Frankel was at the Olympics, ‘cooling off’ for her would have meant being a stellar goalie for anyone else.
Lucky for the Boston Fleet, Frankel didn’t cool off in the slightest. In fact, upon returning to Boston after the Olympic break, she simply translated her experience in Milan to her performance for the Fleet. In her first game back on February 28th, the netminder stopped 23 of 25 shots against the Ottawa Charge and advanced her team to the shootout win, but she wasn’t quite finished. Her next game saw a shoutout performance as the Fleet narrowly beat out the New York Sirens 1-0 thanks to a stellar goal by Ella Huber, and Frankel stopped all 23 shots that the Sirens fired her way.
Frankel had learned all about shootouts in the Olympics, though, and clearly one was not enough for her. (Because of course, this is Aerin Frankel we’re talking about, here!) After being on the wrong end of a shutout when the Toronto Sceptres beat the Fleet 2-0 on March 17th, Frankel went on a historical streak, leading her team to three consecutive shutout wins.
Those three games didn’t feature easy opponents, either. Facing the Sceptres, Goldeneyes, and Torrent, Frankel stopped a total of 74 shots, including a 35-save performance against the Goldeneyes on March 24th. Her team rallied, scoring 8 goals across the three-game series, giving Frankel a bit of breathing room in the crease.
“I already have so many memories from [my] Olympic experience”, Frankel said on March 23rd after her shoutout against the Seattle Torrent. “...but it’s nice to have a little reminder of the whole thing.” The memories Frankel made in her Olympic debut are no doubt going to stick with her forever, but her performance with the Fleet after the Games is no less impressive.
A Season of Success
Frankel’s shutout streak came to an end on March 29th when Minnesota Frost’s Lee Stecklien snuck the puck past her on the power play, but that means nothing in the grand scheme of her success. (And the Fleet won the game and extended their winning streak to four games, so it was at no real loss to Frankel!)
As of April 6th, Frankel has given up one goal or fewer sixteen times, and has seven shutouts just this season alone. Both of these statistics are PWHL single-season records, and with six games left to go, Frankel isn’t even close to being done. She won 12 games last season, but this season she reached that mark just 16 games into the season – it’s obvious that her dominant performance has been happening throughout the entire season and was not spurred on by just the Olympics.
And her teammates’ thoughts? “She’s the best goalie in the world,” Megan Keller said. “I’m lucky that I get to play in front of her year-round, because I know when I make a mistake, she has my back.”
Frankel didn’t share the same sentiment. “Anytime you get 23 of the best players in the world together, it makes [a goalie’s] life so much easier,” she said, speaking of her historic performance at the Olympics. “You can rely on your teammates for absolutely anything.”
We think she needs to be humble because her performance both internationally and in the PWHL absolutely warrants it. With the Fleet having clinched their spot in the Walter Cup Championship, we’re excited to see Frankel’s performance to come and what the Fleet can accomplish with her and everyone else’s incredible talent.
Edited by Olivia Feldgus
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