The PWHL Vancouver Goldeneyes Are Setting A Standard In Women’s Sports

The Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent may be the two newest PWHL franchises, but their rosters include some of the most recognizable veteran faces in women’s hockey.

After scoring the first goal in franchise history for her new team before the Goldeneyes beat the Torrent 4-3 in overtime on Friday night, alternate captain and longtime Team Canada mainstay Sarah Nurse, 30, spoke with awe about what she’d just experienced.

“I’ve played a lot of hockey games — a lot of really big hockey games — and I’ve never felt emotional like I have in that first 20 minutes of the game,” she said. “It felt like something different was in the air, like I’ve never experienced. I have nothing but thanks and gratitude for this whole organization, the PNE, the league, for really placing us in a pretty special place.”

In the PWHL’s third season, the Goldeneyes became the first team in league history to ride home-ice advantage to an opening-night win — all three road teams were victorious in the league’s first season.

And while the team that’s now known as the Ottawa Charge set an attendance record for professional women’s hockey with its first-ever game on Jan. 2, 2024, that sold-out crowd of 8,318 was eclipsed four days later when PWHL Minnesota drew more than 13,000.

On Friday, Vancouver set a new benchmark with a sellout of 14,958. That’s the eighth-largest crowd in league history but the biggest ever for opening night, and the biggest ever for a team in its own venue.

And what a crowd it was. The fans were loud during player introductions, especially for local products Jennifer Gardiner, Hannah Miller and Nina Jobst-Smith. And the chants of ‘Let’s go, Goldeneyes’ echoed throughout the game, even after the Torrent took the lead on a goal from Julia Gosling at 14:40 of the first period.

Three minutes later, Nurse tied the game and triggered the first-ever spin of Vancouver’s goal song, ‘Let’s Get Loud’ by Jennifer Lopez. But Gosling beat Goldeneyes goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer again with 56 seconds left to play in the opening frame to put Seattle back in front.

That lead held until early in the third, when Gabby Rosenthal converted a spectacular behind-the-back pass from Abby Boreen.

Hannah Bilka set up the Torrent to play spoiler when she shovelled a puck past Maschmeyer with less than seven minutes remaining. But with 2:03 left in regulation and the Vancouver goaltender on the bench for the extra attacker, defender Claire Thompson sent the game to overtime when Seattle goaltender Corinne Schroeder was unable to smother the puck after a shot from Brooke McQuigge.

Those goal highlights don’t just capture the energy of the fans at the Pacific Coliseum. Even though the team’s jerseys were unveiled only a month earlier and the Goldeneyes identity wasn’t revealed until Nov. 6, team jerseys and other merchandise were prevalent.

“I took a second to look around to the entire arena and it seemed like everybody had a piece of Goldeneyes merch,” Nurse said.

“And we got a logo, like, two weeks ago,” she added with a laugh.

The short timeline for the launch of the expansion teams is the reason why Seattle and Vancouver won’t have their logos on their jerseys this season, and why the product selection will grow during the year.

“We try to cater everything for everyone, but we need to continue to be better,” said PWHL executive vice president of business operations Amy Scheer before Friday’s game. “Even tonight, because we did the name launch so late into the production of how merch would want it, there’s going to be a lot of items that are added throughout the season because of the long lead times for getting new items in. I think what you see in the store today will be the least amount of what you see, and that the spectrum of items will grow as the season goes on.”

Fans who arrived early at the Coliseum in hopes of picking up some new gear had their patience tested, as the lineup for the team store quickly snaked through the arena.

“You have to work within the spaces that you’re given, and four points of sale is not enough,” said Scheer. “There’s two satellite booths here as well, but they’re in the back of each side on the Concourse. No one’s walking that far to get there.”

It was also impossible to miss the Goldeneyes logo at center ice — a first for the league, as Vancouver is the first anchor tenant in its home arena.

That carries enormous significance for players who have been accustomed to settling for what they’ve been offered through their hockey-playing lives.

“Getting to come to work every day and seeing it all be about us is something that we’ve never, ever had before,” Nurse emphasized. “This last week has been something so special, getting to see the Jumbotron, knowing that everything is ours. We are the priority. We’ve never, ever been a priority before, the main priority. Maybe priority No. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6? To be No. 1 is something that we’ve never experienced. I think it’s what’s going to set the standard for the rest of the league, the rest of professional hockey in the future.”

Because the PWHL has grown so quickly, its benchmarks topple with regularity. That could be the case again next Friday, when the Torrent play their home opener. Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena has a capacity of 17,151 for the NHL games of the Seattle Kraken, and the city boasts a rich women’s sports culture thanks to the WNBA’s Seattle Storm and the NWSL’s Seattle Reign.

“Relying on our fans to show up and show out for us,” said Torrent captain Hilary Knight, who’s in the conversation as the greatest women’s player of all time.

“We know how good we are,” she said. “We need to put it on display. Finally, we’re filling seats and people are able to see this amazing game that we all fell in love with at such a young age.”

Amid all the positivity, and talk of more expansion on the horizon, one stormcloud looms. Ottawa has been one of the league’s strongest markets, consistently drawing well and reaching the Walter Cup final last season before falling to the Minnesota Frost. But after their NHL counterparts, the Ottawa Senators, have struggled for years to get a downtown arena off the ground, a newly approved strategic plan which includes a replacement rink for the Charge’s current home at 8,585-seat TD Place has been approved for a capacity of 6,600 for hockey.

That’s now considered to be too small for the PWHL’s future plans. The league has made it clear that if the current plans go ahead, the Charge will need a new home — whether that’s in Ottawa or elsewhere.

“Every option’s on the table at this point,” said Scheer on a media call on Nov. 18. “We’ve certainly been clear with (Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group) and the city that we will not go backwards.”

As the Vancouver Goldeneyes set out on their first road trip this week, TD Place will be their first stop. They’ll face the Charge on Nov. 26, then stop at Prudential Center in Newark to face the New York Sirens and visit the Fleet at Agannis Arena in Boston. Vancouver’s next home game is Saturday, Dec. 6 against the Sirens (3 p.m. ET).