Olympic Stars Shine as Fleet Defeat Charge 3-2

If you needed a reminder that the PWHL is the post-Olympics playground we’ve always deserved, Saturday, February 28th in Ottawa was it. The Boston Fleet and Ottawa Charge both hit the ice for their first game back after Milano Cortina, and the whole afternoon felt like an Olympic reunion disguised as a regular season matchup. Fifteen Olympians shared the ice. Fifteen. In one league game in Ottawa.

Photo by PWHL

The Charge welcomed back eight Olympians: gold medalists Gwyneth Philips and Rory Guilday with Team USA, silver medalists Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner and Jocelyne Larocque with Canada, plus Kateřina Mrázová (Czechia) and Finland’s Sanni Ahola and Ronja Savolainen. Boston brought seven of their own, including U.S. gold medalists Aerin Frankel, Megan Keller and Haley Winn, along with Alina Müller (Switzerland), Susanna Tapani (Finland), Daniela Pejšová (Czechia) and Laura Kluge (Germany). Across the league, 61 players – nearly 30 percent of the PWHL – competed at the Olympics. That number alone speaks to the level of talent in this league.

Boston opened the scoring late in the first when Abby Newhook found the back of the net off a setup from Alina Müller and Hadley Hartmetz. Ottawa answered in the third, with Rebecca Leslie tying the game just eight seconds into the period on the power play, Clark and Jenner picking up assists. Leslie struck again less than two minutes later, flipping the momentum fully in Ottawa’s favour and sending TD Place into a frenzy. 

“They love being teammates, and that’s about 90 percent of the battle right there,” said Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod. “They’re excited to be back together as a team. For the group that was here training, it was nice to have full bodies in practice. And for our crew that was at the Olympics, they’re excited to be back because Ottawa Charge hockey is pretty special. We’re just trying to pick up where we left off.”

Photo by PWHL

But Boston didn’t go quietly. With just over six minutes left, Müller tied the game on a power play goal assisted by Keller and Tapani, sending it to overtime. Because apparently Olympic drama wasn’t enough, we got 3-on-3 hockey and then a shootout – which felt fitting, considering how many of these players had just lived through gold medal pressure. Müller scored in the shootout, and Hannah Brandt sealed it for Boston in a 3-2 win.

The goalie storyline might have been the most poetic part of the night. Aerin Frankel and Gwyneth Philips, fresh off sharing Olympic glory, faced each other at opposite ends of the rink. Frankel returned to Boston riding an all-time performance, posting historic numbers in Milano Cortina and carrying that confidence straight back into league play. She turned aside 23 shots this game while Philips countered with 21 saves of her own. 

Credit: Alessandro Garofalo/Reuters via Imagn Images.png

“It was a really good hockey game,” MacLeod said. “We came out pretty well in the first, generated some strong primary shots, but we wanted to create more of those second opportunities and make Frankel’s life harder. She’s an elite goaltender – if she sees it, she’s going to save it. Ultimately, it was two really good teams going at it.”

What makes this moment feel bigger than one regular season game is the context. For years, women’s hockey lacked one stable, unified professional league that consistently brought together the world’s best players between Olympic cycles. After the Canadian Women’s Hockey League folded in 2019 and the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) shut down in 2023, elite players split between overseas leagues and showcase tours. If you loved women’s hockey, you often waited four years for the Olympics to see everyone together on a major stage.

The PWHL has changed that reality. Instead of Olympic buzz fading, it flows directly into meaningful league games, playoff races and a Walter Cup chase. Boston is fighting to hold onto first place. Ottawa is protecting home ice and pushing its TD Place winning streak. And fans don’t have to wait until 2030 to see these matchups again. 

Saturday wasn’t just a post-Olympic reunion. It was proof that the platform finally exists – that the best players in the world don’t vanish after the closing ceremony anymore. They come back. They compete. And they keep building the game in front of us.

Edited by Mithzi Silva