By Budd Bailey
It turned out to be a night to think about women’s hockey – past, present and future – increasing in importance as we went from step to step.
For the record, the Boston Fleet defeated the New York Sirens, 3-2 in a shootout, at the KeyBank Center on Sunday night. It was the latest stop in the so-called “Takeover Tour” by the Professional Women’s Hockey League, which will have nine games played in neutral sites across North America by the time the season is over.
There was plenty to consider in reviewing the night’s activities, and what it might mean.
The past
It was hard not to think of the Buffalo Beauts while watching the Fleet and the Sirens. The Beauts were the “little sisters” of the Buffalo sports scene during their run from 2015 to 2023 in a couple of early versions of a women’s professional hockey league. They even won a championship in 2017, thanks in part to some other-worldly goaltending during a very short playoff season.
The Pegulas owned the team from December 2017 to May 2019. In the middle of that run was a game played in the KeyBank Center, as the Beauts hosted the Minnesota Whitecaps. Hannah Brandt of the Fleet played in that game on December 19. 2018.
“I kind of forgot that I actually played here,” she said after the game. “Then I walked into the locker room and I immediately realized that I’d been here before. So it’s pretty cool to have played here twice. It was good to have a big crowd. I have good memories here.”
When a strike hit the National Women’s Hockey League in 2019, the Pegulas and the league ended their relationship, and the Beauts had to hit the road for the Northtown Center in Amherst. It was not exactly a home that screamed out “big league.” In 2023, women’s hockey finally settled its labor problems and essentially started over, but the new arrangement left Buffalo out in the proverbial cold.
There’s still a bit of a Buffalo legacy in the sport, thanks to seven Beauts who are participating in the PWHL. There are also good memories there. Pete Perran coached the team from 2019 to 2021. There have been many class acts who have coached teams with “Buffalo” on their uniforms. Perran is the one that almost no one remembers.
In addition, several girls certainly remember going to Beauts’ games earlier in their young lives. They added a high-pitch tone to the cheering that took part in the game, and they were almost overwhelmed at the chance to meet some of their players afterwards game and obtain an autograph. I can still picture their awe-struck faces. Who knows how many of those young girls have stuck with athletics in one form or another after that encouragement? But I do know that it must have been tough to explain to them why the Beauts were going away and never coming back.
The Present
As for the Sunday’s game, it was a little odd watching a game where many of the fans did not have much of a rooting interest. (New York probably received louder cheers during the course of the contest, for whatever reason.) Even so, it was a good, entertaining game that at times was an excellent representation of what women’s hockey can be under the right circumstances.
“It was really loud,” Brandt said. “I don’t know if it was the music or the fans, but it was really loud. Even the TV timeouts were loud. It’s so nice to play in front of a bigger crowd. I think it does tremendous things for women’s ice hockey, but for women in sport in general. It’s just so awesome for us to play in different venues.”
The two teams came into the contest traveling in opposite directions. Boston had won three in a row, while New York had lost six straight. Most of the scoring came in the first period. New York’s Sarah Fillier struck first, Loren Gabel answered for Boston, and Jessie Eldridge put the Sirens back in front late in the first period. Amanda Pelkey re-tied the game for Boston late in the second period, and that’s the way it stayed for more than 30 minutes.
The best part of the afternoon/evening was the overtime, as the teams put on a display that any hockey fan would have enjoyed. There were many scoring opportunities in those five minutes, and the goaltenders were up to the challenge every time. Then the game went to the shootout, with both sides having five chances to score. Susanna Tapani of Boston was the only one to find the net, giving the Fleet a 3-2 win.
The night’s first star was Boston goalie Aerin Frankel who stopped 37 of 39 shots and went 5 for 5 in the shootout. “She’s the best goalie in the world,” Fleet coach Courtney Kessel said about Frankel. “Countless times she's kept us in games. Kept us rolling through playoffs last year, facing so many shots. She’s just so steady –– never too high, never too low. You always get the same effort from her in practice and she’s a tremendous goalie leader as well for all three of our national goalies. The ability for them to push each other in every single practice, I think is what puts our goalies at the top.”
It was a nice win for the Fleet, which moved into third place in the six-team league and is only four points out of first.
The future
The most important number of the day, at least from a Buffalo standpoint, was 8,512. That was the announced attendance for the game. It should be noted that the 300 level of the KeyBank Center was left empty, as everyone was in the 100s or 200s. It also should be noted that there were stories of last-minute offers of free tickets to local girls’ hockey teams that made the rounds in Western New York. You’d probably have done the same thing had you been in charge of the game.
The number might be a good news/bad news sort of test. On the good news side, the attendance was bigger than the average crowd at a PWHL game. At last count, that number is 7,334 per game. Keep in mind that only two of the six teams in the league play in NHL-sized arenas. The other four are in four-figure buildings, so they are doing quite well in terms of percentage of capacity.
On the other hand, Buffalo’s crowd was by far the smallest of the five games played to date, which averaged an impressive 16,288 before Sunday’s contest here. Vancouver, Quebec City and Edmonton have all had sellouts in excess of 17,000, while Denver set a U.S. record with 14,018 and Seattle drew 12,608.
The idea behind the neutral-site games is to help “grow the game” (everyone connected with women’s hockey seems to be able to say that while sleeping) by introducing the sport to new markets. Left unsaid by that is the concept that such games are at least one way of testing cities when it comes to expansion locations. The process may be starting in the next several weeks. “The Original Six” has its charm in hockey circles, thanks to the NHL’s abbreviated lineup for the quarter-century leading up to 1967. But it doesn’t do much for a sport that is trying to increase the size of its footprint around North America.
These games aren’t the only test for franchise viability, and ownership of expansion teams might come down to finding interested people with deep, deep pockets. But based on Sunday night, it’s fair to say Buffalo just fell behind a bit in this conversation.
Footnotes
A few other observations on a rare day of women’s pro hockey in Western New York:
This is going to sound odd, but from the press box it sure looked as if one side of the lower bowl had more fans than the other. One guess is that something was done to make sure that the television broadcast of the game would show more fans because they were across the ice from the main camera, although I have absolutely no proof of that.
Say, when was the last time the Canadian anthem wasn’t played before a pro hockey game in Buffalo?
For old-timers who miss the old logo of the Hartford Whalers, you’re in luck. The logo of the Boston Fleet looks like someone took the Whalers’ insignia, flipped it on its side, and changed it enough to look like a “B.” I would guess than ex-Whaler Kevin Dineen, who tormented the Sabres during trips to Memorial Auditorium, must be pleased.
The Sirens and the Fleet set a league record for penalty minutes in a game this week.
This one was calmer, but did feature some noticeable hitting. The league had its first fight on Thursday in a game between Boston and Ottawa. You won’t be surprised to know that it caused a bit of a stir on social media.
(Follow Budd on X.com via @WDX2BB)
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