Sceptres Fall To Fleet In Home Opener

Coming off a road win in Minnesota, the Toronto Sceptres played their first 2025-26 game at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Saturday afternoon, falling 3-1 to the Boston Fleet. With the win, the Fleet are the only undefeated team in the PWHL this season (2-0-0-0).

The game opened with a barrage of penalties; ex-Sceptre Laura Kluge called for delay of game just 15 seconds in, followed by Toronto’s Claire Dalton getting whistled for high-sticking, just before the five-minute mark.

With Dalton in the box, Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull found a burst of speed entering the Fleet zone for a breakaway, snapping the puck past Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel for the game’s first goal, a ‘jailbreak’ marker.

Throughout the rest of the opening frame, Toronto frustrated at Boston at every turn; a heavy forecheck leading to multiple Fleet turnovers.  Over the first twenty minutes, Boston was held to just two shots on goal; one at even strength.

“Credit to them,” Boston coach Kris Sparre said of the Sceptres. “They came out with a lot of enthusiasm. You can see it in their skating right away.”

In the second period, Kluge was the recipient of a breakout pass and found herself alone on a breakaway from the blue line, but couldn’t beat Raygan Kirk.  Not to be outdone between the pipes, Frankel made a point-blank save off Maggie Connors in the slot, just prior to the midway point.

The Fleet evened the score at 14:10 when a rebound from a shot by Jill Saulnier caromed off the left skate of Abby Newhook into the net past a helpless Kirk. It was Newhook’s first career PWHL goal.

“It was awesome,” Newhook said. “I think it was a team effort out there, and we just got pucks in behind them and went to work. I gave it to Jill and crashed the net hard, and got lucky there. It was a cool moment.”

Just before the end of the second period, Turnbull fed Jesse Compher on a shorthanded two-on-one, but Frankel stood tall, preventing the Sceptres’ jailbreak attempt.

Coach Troy Ryan mixed up his defensive pairings in the final period, reuniting Kali Flanagan and Allie Munroe, and uniting – for the first time this year – Team Canada stalwarts Renata Fast and Ella Shelton. One of Toronto’s best chances in the final frame came at the 8:38 mark when Spooner found herself alone in the slot and ripped the puck towards the net, but could not beat Frankel.

On just their 11^th shot of the game, the Fleet took the lead when Jamie Lee Rattray found Susanna Tapani with a backhand pass from behind the goal line, Tapani rifling the puck past Kirk for her second goal of the season.

The goal held up as the game-winner as the Sceptres couldn’t capitalize on a flurry in the dying moments of regulation; Turnbull inching the puck to the goal line before Frankel got a glove on it, the goalie’s most clutch stop of her 24 total saves.  Alina Muller rounded out the scoring into an empty net.

Tapani, Frankel and Turnbull were named the game’s three stars.

“We’ve got some things to iron out for sure,” Toronto coach Troy Ryan said. “It’s funny, I come in sometimes and we win games, and I’m unhappy. This one, we lose this one, for this point in the season, I’ll take it any day.”

Noteworthy: The Sceptres were missing last year’s leading scorer Daryl Watts, who is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury.  Lauren Messier was signed to a ten-day contract, and was inserted into Saturday’s lineup…A sellout crowd of 8,277 was on hand for the game at Coca-Cola Coliseum…Ex Sceptres Laura Kluge and Rylind MacKinnon were honoured on the scoreboard during a TV timeout.  

Around the league

Wed. Nov. 26 – Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner tied the PWHL record for most points in a game with four, collecting two goals and two assists to propel the Charge to a 5-1 win over the Vancouver Goldeneyes.

Fri. Nov. 28 – Seattle played host to 16,014 fans at Climate Pledge Arena, setting the attendance record for a women’s hockey game in the United States. However the Minnesota Frost spoiled the Torrent’s home opener, blanking their opponents 3-0. Goaltender Nicole Hensley made 30 saves in the shutout.

Sat. Nov. 29 – First-overall draft pick Krystyna Kaltounkova scored her first PWHL goal. She was one of five different Sirens to find the net as New York prevailed 5-1 in their home opener against Vancouver.