PWHL Schedule Highlights for the 2024-25 Season – The Hockey Writers – PWHL News

After a long few months of waiting, the PWHL has officially announced the league schedule for each of its six teams. After an inaugural season with no names or logos and a short schedule, the league now has names and logos and a slightly longer schedule that fans can support. Each team announced their training camps last week, so the schedule had to follow soon.

Instead of 24 games, each team will now play 30 games, 15 home and 15 away, and there will be three breaks throughout, similar to last season. It is unclear whether there will be a Rivalry Series like last season, but the first two breaks will be for indefinite international matches, while the final break is for the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship, which runs from March 3-25 April takes place. In this article, we will highlight some quick points for each team’s schedule and how these breaks will impact the league as a whole. We’ll start with the New York Sirens and go from there.

Sirens need more

The Sirens were the first team to exit the playoffs last season and they will look to bounce back from their struggles. This season they will be put to the test immediately as their first game will be on the road against the Walter Cup champions, the Minnesota Frost. This won’t be the only test at the start of the season either, the Sirens will play their first three games on the road before finally getting a home game more than two weeks into the season, and their home opener will be the last of the six teams.

Over the course of the season there will be a series of home games followed by a series of away games. However, they will play six home games between now and the end of December and beginning of January, with an away game in the middle. The end of the season, like the beginning, will largely take place on the road, but they will officially end the season at home against the Montreal Victoire.

Cargo looking for late season

After nearly being eliminated in the postseason, they suffered a season-ending loss that dropped them just one point on the outside. The Ottawa Charge will also be looking for redemption, especially against the Toronto Sceptres who handed them the loss that knocked them out of the postseason. Like the Sirens, they will head out for a short away game against Victoire, but then play their home opener just a few days later.

After a few home games and their first international break of the season, the Charge will be on the road for five games in a row, two of them against the Sirens, so they will be very familiar with New York’s trip at the end of the season. The Charge will play at home a little later in the season, with five consecutive home games in February. Their first big game against the Sceptres will be the Charge’s second game of the season, and fortunately they will be at home. After a season where they finished strong except for the last game, it will be interesting to see if they can pick up more wins this season.

Victoire has high hopes

They were picked to make it to the end last season, but unfortunately fell short when they lost to the Boston Fleet in Round 1 of the postseason. Unlike the two teams in front of them, Victoire starts their season with two home games in a row. Looking at their schedule, their first game back against Fleet will be at home in late December and everyone will be excited to see how that turns out. The fleet had something to prove and now it will be on the Victoire to see how they handle the rematch and whether they will be the ones to take down the fleet this season.

The end of their season will be a back and forth affair, with a home game and then an away game again until they finish the season away against the Sirens. While the Sirens and Charge have seasons to recover from, it will be interesting to see how the newly named Victoire fares. They have to live up to their previous season and try to live up to their new name too.

Scepters also want salvation

So far this has been a list of teams looking to perform better than last season and the Sceptres are high on that list too. They will be looking for revenge after they were expected to compete for the Walter Cup against the Victoire and were instead eliminated in Round 1 by the Frost from last postseason. Like the Victoire, the Sceptres will start the season at home, but won We won’t stay long as they will have a number of one-off tasks at the start of the season.

They will spend one game at home, then away and vice versa until almost a month into the season. Their third game of the season and second home game will be against the Frost, who knocked them out of the postseason after bouncing back from elimination three times. All eyes will be on the matchups between Sceptres and Frost throughout the season, but also on the Sceptres in general to see if she and Natalie Spooner can have the strong season they had before.

The fleet wants its chance

Just like the Sceptres before them, the fleet was caught off guard by the Frost coming back and stealing the Walter Cup from them in five games. The Fleet will begin their season away from home against the Sceptres, but in their home opener, the second game of the season, they will host the Frost. Fans won’t have to wait long to watch the game in the first-ever Walter Cup Championship.

Depending on the teams’ performance after their first break of the season and some changes, these will likely be the most exciting matchups of the season. The Fleet will bounce back and forth between home and away games like the rest of the teams, but they will finish the season at home against the Frost in what could be another postseason rivalry like the season before.

Frost is looking for back-to-back championships

Lastly, the Frost will be keeping a close eye on their schedule to see if they can have a stronger season than last and come home with another Walter Cup. They barely made it to the postseason and will start this season at home against the Sirens. It’s a common theme across all schedules. Teams alternate between home and away games before long series of home and/or away games. The Frost will play their first long home game in late December/early January with five games in a row so fans can get a glimpse of top scorer Taylor Heise.

Related: Opportunities for improvement for all 6 PWHL teams this season

Every Frost game will be closely watched as they become the first defending champions looking to recapture the trophy, and there have been some changes in the off-season too. Although they start at home, they end the regular season on the road against the Fleet, a rematch that was discussed earlier. It will be interesting to see how each team manages their schedule, especially the Frost.

International breaks can cause problems

Now that we’ve looked at each team’s schedule and each team’s important replays, it’s time to talk about the three long breaks during the season. The first break lasts only one week in December, from December 9th to 16th. The second will last another week in February, from February 3rd to 10th, and the final break will take place towards the end of the season.

In April, the league will take a nearly month-long break from April 3-25 for the 2025 IIHF Women’s World Championship. Although these disruptions are due to other events, they can be problematic for the teams involved. Being away from the team for too long can make it difficult for the team to maintain chemistry.

Of course, players who don’t participate in certain events still see each other, but team building involves constantly training together and forming bonds. When there are big breaks, it becomes harder to form those bonds and it becomes harder to maintain their game scenarios and improve as a team. Some teams handled the breaks better than others last season, and it will be interesting to see how this three-break season goes and which teams emerge victorious.