PWHPA: All-Stars vs Team Canada

As the 2022 Winter Olympics approach, the Canadian Women’s National Team is looking to round into form. As part of that preparation, they’ve signed on for a two-game exhibition series against an All-Star squad from the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association. The series will be hosted at the Hockey Canada headquarters at Winsport in Calgary. Game Two will go Saturday afternoon, but the first tilt was last night!

There was some local flair from Calgary’s PWHPA club, Team Scotiabank, with forward Sarah Potomak and defender Katelyn Gosling in the starting lineup for Team PWHPA. While the Olympians came out hot and peppered goalie Shea Tiley in the first, the affair was scoreless after one. Tiley would finish the game with an astounding 53 stops against the Olympic squad.

The tie would break in the middle frame, with Alexandra Labelle opening the scoring for PWHPA. Typically a superstar forward for Team Scotiabank, Olympic selection Rebecca Johnston would then reply for the national team. The teams were tied again after two periods, when a wild finish would come in the final frame!

Things were tightly contested for most of the period, but Marie-Philip Poulin would give the Olympians a 2-1 lead with 2:30 left in the game.

The All-Stars would answer right back, with Sarah Lefort knotting things back up with only 1:23 left! But Team Canada would quickly rally back to make it 3-2 off an Emily Clark marker. The All-Stars would bench Tiley for the extra skater, but the score would hold for a 3-2 final. It was a pulse pounding finish that saw three goals in the final three minutes!

In addition to tomorrow’s rematch with Team Canada, the PWHPA All-Star Team will head to Japan for one week—from January 9 to 16— to play Team Japan. Between these two series, more league action is scheduled as the next PWHPA tourney will be held in Toronto on December 18th and 19th at the Kipling Showcase, and Calgary’s Team Scotiabank will look to go back-to-back after winning the last showcase. With plenty of the women’s game on the docket, check back with Matchsticks & Gasoline for all the action!

by MilhouseFirehouse