The Premier Hockey Federation will be launching an expansion team in Montreal for the 2022-23 season, the league announced Tuesday.

Included among the team’s leadership are president Kevin Raphaël and vice president Emmanuel Anderson.

“This is a very exciting time for the PHF and the growth of professional women’s hockey,” PHF commissioner Reagan Carey said in a release. “The city of Montreal and province of Quebec have a rich hockey history that the PHF is proud to officially be a part of.”

The team will practice in Centre 21.02, a 2,500-seat complex that was founded in 2019. It is also the first and only recognized High Performance Hockey Center for women athletes across Canada.

While based in Montreal, the team will play games across Quebec in an effort to “raise the PHF’s profile and showcase professional women’s hockey to greater audiences,” the league said in its announcement.

“Expansion is an important part of the PHF’s commitment to grow the game by providing greater opportunities for more professional athletes to develop and compete, while inspiring the next generation to pursue their own dreams in the sport,” Carey said. “The introduction of one new PHF team in 2022-23 will help us build a solid and sustainable future, one step at a time.”

This marks the third time the league has expanded since being founded in 2015, with the Toronto Six, the most recent franchise, joining in 2020-21.

There has been women’s professional hockey in Montreal before. Les Canadiennes de Montreal played in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League, winning four Clarkson Cup championships between 2009 and 2019. In 2015, the team played the Boston Pride in the first outdoor women’s professional hockey game as part of the 2016 NHL Winter Classic.

An official team name and logo for the new PHF franchise are expected to be unveiled in the coming weeks, as well as the team’s coaching staff and roster formation.

The battle for continental soccer glory continues on Wednesday, as the Portland Thorns and Gotham FC land in Mexico for the 2024/25 Concacaf W Champions Cup semifinals.

After advancing past last fall's group-stage play, both NWSL sides now face Liga MX standouts in the knockout rounds with a ticket to Saturday's Champions Cup Final on the line.

The back-to-back semifinals will take place on Wednesday in Nuevo León, Mexico, with live coverage streaming on Paramount+:

• Club América vs. Gotham FC, 7:30 PM ET: Both the Bats and this year's Liga MX regular season champions are looking to bounce back, as Gotham attempts to shake off a recent NWSL skid while América seeks redemption after stumbling in their season-ending league tournament earlier this month.

• Tigres UANL vs. Portland Thorns, 10:30 PM ET: Expect a high-energy clash between the three-time NWSL champs and six-time Liga MX title-winners, with the Thorns coming off a five-match undefeated streak and the Tigres shooting to impress in front of their home crowd at Estadio Universitario.

It's not just hardware and continental bragging rights on the line, though.

Saturday's 2024/25 Concacaf W Champions Cup victors will also earn automatic qualification into FIFA's 2026 Champions Cup — a six-team tournament between confederation winners — and the first-ever Club World Cup, which will kick off in 2028.

After a first-round weekend of pitcher's duels and red-hot bats, the 2025 NCAA softball tournament's best-of-three Super Regionals field is set — and it's missing four of the 16 national seeds.

No. 10 LSU fell on Saturday after two upset losses to unseeded SE Louisiana, before Sunday saw No. 13 Arizona and No. 14 Duke follow suit while unseeded Ole Miss, Georgia, and Nebraska all punched second-round tickets.

Eventually ousting SE Louisiana in the winners' bracket to advance to their first Super Regionals in 11 years, the Huskers rode in on the back of two-time All-American pitcher Jordy Bahl, with the Oklahoma transfer throwing 12 innings and hitting four home runs across Nebraska's three Regional games.

Elsewhere, unseeded Liberty booked a program-first trip to the Supers by eliminating top-seed Texas A&M — the first time the NCAA bracket's overall No. 1 seed failed to advance from Regionals.

Should they similarly bounce No. 16 Oregon this weekend, Liberty will become just the second mid-major team to make the Women's College World Series (WCWS) since 2014, joining James Madison's 2021 Cinderella run.

Rounding out the rest of the Super Regional round's 16 teams are No. 2 Oklahoma, No. 3 Florida, No. 4 Arkansas, No. 5 Florida State, No. 6 Texas, No. 7 Tennessee, and No. 8 South Carolina, as well as No. 9 UCLA, No. 11 Clemson, No. 12 Texas Tech, No. 15 Alabama, and the aforementioned No. 16 Ducks.

Super Regional weekend to feature blockbuster matchups

The 16 contenders will battle head-to-head for eight available WCWS berths, with the four-time defending champion Sooners now leading the field.

To advance, however, Oklahoma must first outlast Alabama, a team with which the Sooners have a long, contentious postseason history — the pair have faced off in five of the last 12 NCAA tournaments.

After Oklahoma bounced Alabama from the 2019 WCWS semifinals — the last time the pair squared off before becoming SEC rivals — the Tide enacted revenge by narrowly beating the Sooners in April's conference play, teeing up a tense weekend Super Regional series.

After narrowly missing this weekend's hosting rights as the No. 9 seed — UCLA's lowest seeding since 2016 — the Bruins proved why they are the sport's winningest program, run-ruling ever Regional game while allowing just two runs all weekend.

The 12-time champions will now travel to Gamecock territory, where No. 8 South Carolina will try to boost the Bruins and book their first WCWS ticket in 28 years.

Powerhouses still rule the diamond, but parity has never been higher in college softball, with this year's NCAA tournament already delivering whiplash results.

How to watch the 2025 NCAA softball Super Regionals

The best-of three NCAA softball Super Regionals kick off on Thursday and run through the weekend, with possible winner-take-all clashes finalizing the WCWS slate on Sunday.

First games are as follows:

• No. 12 Texas Tech at No. 5 Florida State, 7 PM ET on Thursday (ESPN2)
• No. 11 Clemson at No. 6 Texas, 9 PM ET on Thursday (ESPN2)
• Georgia at No. 3 Florida, 11 AM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• No. 9 UCLA at No. 8 South Carolina, 1 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• No. 15 Alabama at No. 2 Oklahoma, 5 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• Nebraska at No. 7 Tennessee, 7 PM ET on Friday (ESPN2)
• Ole Miss at No. 4 Arkansas, 8 PM ET on Friday (ESPNU)
• Liberty at No. 16 Oregon, 10 PM ET on Friday (ESPNU)

With the 2025 PWHL Finals in full swing and new franchises on the horizon, the league rolled out a detailed expansion plan to build its two new teams on Monday.

The expansion process will see 24 current PWHL players — four from each of the six founding teams — join either Vancouver or Seattle next month.

To be eligible for selection, athletes must be either under contract or have rights held by a current team for the 2025/26 season. 

Each original team can protect three eligible athletes at the outset, with squads reserving the right to protect one additional player should the incoming clubs select two players off the same roster.

In the lead-up to June 9th's expansion draft, Vancouver and Seattle will have five days to sign up to five unprotected players each.

After that window closes, Seattle and Vancouver will increase their rosters to a required total of 12 players via expansion draft selections, with the number of picks for each team determined by how many athletes the new franchises choose to sign.

Finally, the West Coast squads will then complete their 23-athlete lineups alongside the other six teams during the PWHL's June 24th entry draft.

With such a broad unprotected player pool, about half of the PWHL's current athletes — including some of its brightest stars — will be up for grabs, ensuring a very different landscape when the league takes the ice for its third season.

Team USA hockey titan Hilary Knight is hanging up her international skates, with the record-10-time world champion announcing Tuesday that the 2026 Winter Games in Milan, Italy, will be her fifth and final Olympic run.

"It's time," Knight told USA Today. "I'm at peace. I just have this feeling that it’s time."

Going out on her own terms is top-of-mind for the USA hockey great, with Knight acknowledging "That is such a privilege that only a handful of competitors get."

Making her national team debut at 17, the now-35-year-old is one of the sport's most decorated athletes, winning Olympic gold in 2018 to complement three silver medals in 2010, 2014, and 2022.

Just last month, Knight led the US to victory at the IIHF Women's World Championship, and currently sits as the tournament's all-time leader in goals (67), points (120), and assists (50).

Despite her impending step off the international ice, Knight, who currently captains the PWHL's Boston Fleet, plans to continue playing for the second-year league — a pro venture she helped bring to life in 2023.

"I understood what the sport gave me and I wanted to give that to other people," Knight said. "Obviously, there's tons of work that always needs to be done, but I think we now have a career path."