As the 2025/26 PWHL regular season winds down, individual scoring records continue to fall in quick succession — with Hayley Scamurra driving the trend.
Just days after Vancouver’s Jenn Gardiner set the single-game scoring record with four goals against Seattle, the Team USA forward scored the fastest hat trick in league history in Montréal’s 4-3 defeat to the Goldeneyes.
The Olympic gold medalist scored her trio of third-period goals in just two minutes and 44 seconds — also becoming the league’s first player to register a hat trick in a losing effort.
Scamurra’s Victoire can afford the slip-up, sitting atop the PWHL standings heading into Saturday’s regular-season finale with its postseason ticket already punched.
Boston and defending champion Minnesota await Montréal in the 2026 PWHL playoffs, with Seattle, Vancouver, and New York eliminated from contention while Toronto and Ottawa battle for the fourth and final postseason slot.
“It will be like a playoff game before the playoffs,” Ottawa interim head coach Haley Irwin said of Saturday’s Decision Day. “The mindset, in terms of how we play and how we’re going to go about it doesn’t change.”
The PWHL’s Decision Day kicks off on Saturday at 12 PM ET, live on YouTube.
Vancouver forward Jenn Gardiner made PWHL history on Saturday, scoring four goals to lead the Goldeneyes to a dramatic 6-5 overtime victory over Seattle at Climate Pledge Arena.
Gardiner's performance set a new PWHL single-game scoring record. The 24-year-old also notched the PWHL expansion team's first-ever hat trick in front of 12,719 fans.
The lead changed three times during regulation. Vancouver tied the game at 5-5 with less than two seconds remaining in the third period, before Gardiner secured the overtime winner just 52 seconds into the extra frame.
Hannah Miller assisted on the winning goal while contributing two goals and two assists of her own. Either Gardiner or Miller factored into every Vancouver goal, with Sophie Jaques adding three assists for the Goldeneyes.
The victory completed a season-series sweep for Vancouver. The Goldeneyes finished 2-0-2-0 against fellow 2025/26 addition Seattle in their inaugural PWHL campaign.
Vancouver Misses 2026 PWHL Playoffs Despite Historic Win
However, the win couldn't save Vancouver's playoff hopes, as the Goldeneyes joined the already-eliminated Torrent outside the postseason picture. Both expansion teams now battle for prime draft positioning through the league's innovative Gold Plan initiative.
"I'm just proud of the group and how we came back and we kept believing," captain Ashton Bell said. "To see that line do so well was pretty cool to watch."
Seattle defenders led the Torrent's offensive charge. Anna Wilgren scored her first two goals with Seattle, while Cayla Barnes recorded her first career multi-point game with one goal and two assists after captain Hilary Knight opened the scoring.
Vancouver scored six goals for the first time in franchise history, as both teams combined for 11 goals and seven third-period tallies — new PWHL records.
The No. 3 Minnesota Frost are looking to skate up the PWHL table, as the reigning back-to-back champs hope to make up ground before the third-year league breaks for the 2026 Winter Olympics.
Eight games into the 2025/26 season, the Boston Fleet top the PWHL standings with 19 points, trailed by the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres with 14, while the No. 4 Montréal Victoire sit one point behind the Frost with 11.
"Our league is good. Every game is going to be close," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said last week. "It's just about getting better and keep accumulating points."
With the league's original six teams largely off to a hot start, there's only a few weeks left before players hang up their PWHL jerseys for February's Winter Games.
Teams outside the current playoff chase are also making a statement, as New York Sirens forward Casey O'Brien scored her first pro goals to power the sixth-place squad past the No. 5 Seattle Torrent 4-3 on Sunday — becoming the first rookie to record a hat trick in PWHL history in the process.
"We've been putting in a lot of work in practice and video, focusing on the little things," O'Brien said postgame. "Tonight felt like the payoff."
How to watch this week's PWHL action
The puck drops on the final 2025 PWHL matches on Tuesday, when the No. 3 Minnesota Frost visit the No. 2 Toronto Sceptres at 7 PM ET, airing live on Prime.
Closing out the year on Wednesday, the No. 6 New York Sirens will host the No. 7 Vancouver Goldeneyes at 1 PM ET, with live coverage airing on MSG Network.
The PWHL is rapidly looking to ramp up expansion, with EVP of business operations Amy Scheer saying this week that the third-year pro hockey league could welcome "two to four" new teams as soon as next year.
"If I was a betting woman, I'd say it'd be four teams. And then I think we'll hold at 12 for a bit," she told CNBC Sport, noting the league's immediate success with 2025/26 expansion sides the Vancouver Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent — the latter of which shattered the US women's hockey attendance record in their Friday home opener.
Accordingly, the PWHL will continue testing possible new markets using the league's historically packed Takeover Tour, with this season's 11-city route expanding to feature seven new host venues.
"What does the support of women's sports look like there?" Scheer said, outlining the league's criteria for assessing potential markets. "If there's an NHL team, what does that look like? Or from the building, is there government support there? How does it impact travel? So there's a lot of factors."
As for the league's notably speedy expansion pace, Scheer told Front Office Sports that the PWHL has "proven that time is overrated."
"The more our numbers grow, the more value we have as a league, the more value we have against our partnerships we sell, the more merchandise we sell," Scheer explained. "Those two things — growth and profitability — are not separate."
With the puck dropping on the expanded third PWHL season on Friday, the league announced its 2025/26 broadcast schedule on Tuesday — with games now set to reach more than 96 million homes.
While all US games will continue to stream on the league's YouTube channel, national coverage will now also be available across FOX, Paramount, Scripps Sports, Gray Media, and TEGNA this season, in addition to previous regional partners like NESN, MSG Networks, KONG, and FanDuel Sports Network.
"The PWHL's broadcast strategy isn't about exclusivity — it's about accessibility," said PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer in a league statement.
"We're ensuring fans everywhere can experience the speed, skill, and intensity of PWHL hockey. This approach allows us to continue expanding our audience, strengthen local connections, and showcase our world-class athletes on the biggest possible stage."
The expanded broadcast footprint of the PWHL mirrors the league's growth, with the 2025/26 season seeing both the addition of two franchises — the Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes — as well as an increase of 30 games, bringing the third campaign's total to 120 contests.
How to watch the 2025/26 PWHL season openers this week
The puck drops on the 2025/26 PWHL season with two games on Friday, beginning when the Toronto Sceptres visit the two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost at 7 PM ET, airing live across FOX9+, FDSN, NESN, TSN, and YouTube.
The nightcap pits the league's incoming expansion teams against each other, with the Vancouver Goldeneyes hosting the Seattle Torrent at 10 PM ET, with live coverage across KONG, NESN, TSN, and YouTube.
The PWHL is hitting the road once again, with the newly expanded third-year league adding seven new markets to the 2025/26 season's neutral-site Takeover Tour.
Across 16 regular-season matchups running from December 17th through April 7th, the pro hockey upstart will visit Calgary, Chicago, Dallas, Halifax, Hamilton, Winnipeg, and Washington, DC, for the first time, with Denver, Detroit, Edmonton, and Québec City returning to this season's lineup.
"The passion and support from fans, and the enthusiasm from cities eager to engage with our league, have fueled our ambition to grow the Tour for Season Three," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said in Monday's league statement.
The inaugural 2024/25 PWHL Takeover Tour drew 123,601 fans across nine games, setting a new US pro women's hockey single-game attendance record when a crowd of 14,288 packed Detroit's Little Caesars Arena in March.
The success underlines the sport's booming popularity, with PWHL expansion teams Seattle Torrent and the Vancouver Goldeneyes joining the league's founding six clubs later this month after serving as Takeover Tour stops last season — setting a precedent for potential future markets.
"We're going to expand at least two to four teams next year," Scheer recently told members at an Ottawa City Council meeting. "We are in growth mode, and this league is exploding."
How to attend the 2025/26 PWHL Takeover Tour
The 2025/26 Takeover Tour ticket pre-sale kicks off on Thursday, with host markets opening general sales to all tour dates via thepwhl.com at 10 AM local time on Friday.
The two newest PWHL teams are re-introducing themselves this week, as the third-year league officially revealed the team names and branding for 2025/26 expansion sides Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes on Thursday.
"The Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes are bold, distinctive, and true to who we are as a league," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer said in a league statement. "Each team identity is deeply connected to its home — Seattle draws inspiration from the waterways that shape its landscape, and Vancouver from its abundance of unique wildlife."
While the Torrent's letter "S" evokes Seattle's waterways, Vancouver's branding utilizes a local city bird — the "fiercely protective Common Goldeneye" — for "its speed, strength, and precision in flight."
"The Goldeneyes name is powerful, bold, and tough," said Vancouver forward and local product Jenn Gardiner. "This identity is a perfect reflection of who we are, where we come from, and that we will be relentless to play against every single night."
While the PWHL always planned to unveil the expansion sides' individual identities ahead of the 2025/26 season, both teams will still follow suit from the league's inaugural year by sporting generic PWHL branding throughout their debut campaigns.
In what Scheer calls "the start of an incredible Pacific Northwest rivalry," both the visiting Seattle Torrent and host Vancouver Goldeneyes will make their PWHL debuts against each other when the puck drops on the league's third season on Friday, November 21st.
How to purchase Seattle Torrent and Vancouver Goldeneyes merch
While the Torrent and Goldeneyes will don generic jerseys this season, fully branded merchandise for the 2025/26 PWHL expansion teams hit the league's online shop for fans to purchase on Thursday.