Goldeneyes embrace positives of tough start on the road

EDMONTON – It has been a challenging beginning to their Professional Women’s Hockey League existence for the Vancouver Goldeneyes.

The expansion franchise has won just two of its first seven games and are winless in six road games after a heart-breaking 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Frost on Saturday in Edmonton.

And it doesn’t get any easier in the next few weeks, although the team is now heading home.

“We’re only home for one game and then we’re back on the road for six of the next eight,” goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer said after the Takeover Tour defeat before 10,6264 fans in Rogers Place, most of them hoping for a Vancouver victory.

“In the road stretch we didn’t come away with as many points as we wanted to,” the Brudenheim, Alta., native continued. “But it’s a long season and there were a lot of positives today.”

Now, however, the roster of players who mostly have not played together before this season, gets a chance to go home for a game and reset themselves before resuming their travels.

“Now we get the chance to define ourselves,” said Maschmeyer, noting the players are still excited about the upcoming road games because it gives them more opportunities to get to know each other better.

“It’s a different kind of living,” she said of being on the road so much early in the season, but the players have found positives. Like their performance Saturday against the two-time defending Walter Cup champions.

Maschmeyer surrendered an early power-play goal to Minnesota before shutting the door with a number of spectacular saves that enabled her teammates to survive four first-period penalties and get the game into overtime.

She kicked out 32 of 34 shots before Taylor Heise beat her with a shot just under the crossbar 2:57 into overtime. At the other end of the ice, her counterpart, Maddie Rooney blocked 27 of 28 shots.

Minnesota coach Ken Klee was impressed with both goaltenders.

“Mesch is one of Hockey Canada’s better goalies,” he said. “When you look at the quality of goaltending we have in the league I think it was on full display today. When we got an early goal on the power play (and Vancouver responded two minutes later) I was thinking, OK, this might be a 6-5 game with the chances both ways.”

Abby Hustler scored at 1:18, just 24 seconds after Gabby Rosenthatl drew a delay of game penalty. Less than two minutes later Izzy Daniel backhanded a rebound past Rooney. That was all the scoring until Heise forced her way into the right faceoff circle for the shot that ended the game.

The game was the third of 16 Tour stops for the PWHL this season and the first of two visits to Edmonton with the second game scheduled for April 7, 2026.

The Takeover Tour is 16 neutral-site regular-season games played outside the league’s current cities. Saturday’s game was the second Tour stop in Edmonton. Last season the Ottawa-Toronto game drew a sold-out crowd of 17,518 to Rogers Place.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 27, 2025.