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2024-25 PWHL Power Rankings: Week 2 (12/13-12/19)

'Tis the season for Christmas songs and power rankings!

2024-25 PWHL Power Rankings: Week 2 (12/13-12/19)
Britta Curl-Salemme celebrates one of her goals against Toronto. Photo courtesy of the PWHL. Editor's note: caption has been updated as player was initially misidentified.

Welcome back to The Ice Garden’s weekly power rankings! Check back every Friday for a new installment and remember: if you think your team is ranked too low, it’s definitely, totally, 100% because we hate them.

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It was a light week around the PWHL since the league began its first international break Sunday night, but the power rankings must go on! The rankings are still heavily based on results because each team has only played three games, so there was a lot of movement this week. No team stayed in the same spot, while two made two-spot swings. The break is also causing a light week ahead for most teams, and Montréal doesn’t play at all, but things should begin settle into a better groove soon.

Now that my semester is over, it’s time for me to fully embrace the holiday spirit. So, for this week’s theme, I matched every team with a Christmas song and picked out lyrics that best capture how things went this week. And yes, that means this one is chock full of corny lyric-based jokes (and one necessary pun). We’re so back!

#1. Minnesota Frost

Five Minnesota skaters celebrate a goal with a tight group hug. They are wearing white away jerseys.
Minnesota players celebrate a goal against Toronto. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Previous Ranking: 2 (+1)

This Week’s Results:

  • Sat, Dec 7 @ TOR- 6-3 W

Upcoming Schedule:

  • Thu, Dec 19 vs OTT- 7 p.m. CT, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN (TSN, thepwhl.com)

Christmas Song: Rockin Around the Christmas Tree- Brenda Lee

You will get a sentimental feeling when you hear/Voices singing, let's be jolly/Deck the halls with boughs of holly/Rockin' around the Christmas tree/Have a happy holiday/Everyone dancin' merrily/In the new old-fashioned way.

The Frost have had their fans singing and dancin’ merrily so far this season. They’re rockin’ around the PWHL and sit atop the standings. I thought that coming into the season hoping to do the same thing as last year while other teams tweaked their styles wouldn't go great, but apparently, the new old-fashioned way is the best way early.

The Frost have picked up right where they left off last season. They’ve let up more goals in two of their three games than they’d probably like, but they've banked seven of nine possible points, so no real harm has been done. The vibes are high in Minnesota right now, and there’s no major reason to believe that might change soon.

#2. New York Sirens

Levis skates down the handshake line at the bench. She is side-to the camera and wearing a white away uniform.
Paetyn Levis celebrates her goal against Boston. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Previous Ranking: 1 (-1)

This Week’s Results:

  • Sun, Dec 8 @ BOS- 4-2 L

Upcoming Schedule:

  • Wed, Dec 18 vs TOR- 7 p.m. ET, Prudential Center, Newark, NJ (MSG, TSN, thepwhl.com)

Christmas Song: Jingle Bell Rock- Bobby Helms

Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock/Jingle bells chime in jingle bell time/Dancin' and prancin' in Jingle Bell Square/In the frosty air/What a bright time, it's the right time/To rock the night away/Jingle bell time is a swell time/To go glidin' in a one-horse sleigh

Sirens are a tad louder than jingle bells, but they can both Roque. The Sirens may have lost this week, but it’s still a bright time in New York. They’re a swell time to watch, and it’s not just a one-horse sleigh. The goaltending is still strong, the Eldridge-Carpenter-Fillier line has been dancin’ and prancin’ in the offensive zone, and the Ella Shelton-less d-core is holding up fine so far. The biggest question now is: can they keep Roque’ing for the whole season?

The Sirens are off to a great start to the season, and while it is early, they’re easily the most improved team. They’re more cohesive, play a better-structured game, and overall look like they’re enjoying themselves a lot more, and it's leading to mostly good results. Their power play largely cost them the game against the Fleet after they went 0-for-3 in the third period and 1-for-6 overall, but Fleet netminder Aerin Frankel deserves a lot of credit for that too. They still have to prove that this level of play is sustainable, but New York should be fine as long as the offense keeps it up.

#3. Montréal Victoire

Montréal gathers in tight as a team in front of Chuli's goal to celebrate their win. They are all wearing cream away uniforms.
Montréal celebrates their win over Ottawa. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Previous Ranking: 5 (+2)

This Week’s Results:

  • Fri, Dec 6 @ OTT- 2-1 W

Upcoming Schedule:

  • No games this week.

Christmas Song: Step Into Christmas- Elton John

Take care in all you do next year/And keep smilin' through the days/If we can help to entertain you/Oh, we will find the ways…/Step into Christmas, let's join together/We can watch the snow fall forever and ever/Eat, drink and be merry, come along with me/Step into Christmas, the admission's free, oh.

After I ranked them unfairly low last week, the Victoire stepped up and found ways to entertain their fans and send them smilin’ and merry into the first international break. If they can keep joining together and playing like that, they’ll be a team to watch forever and ever.

The Victoire cleaned things up this week and looked like the team many were expecting heading into the season. It helps that Poulin potted her first non-shootout goal of the season in a very Poulin way because once she gets going, she usually can’t be stopped. There’s still some work to do, but I think fans can feel pretty comfortable that things will keep trending in the right direction.

#4. Toronto Sceptres

Fast (right in blue) looks at the puck as she stops while trying to knock it away from Heise (left in white). Heise is standing upright and dekeing around Fast, with the puck in her skates.
Renata Fast defends against Taylor Heise. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Previous Ranking: 3 (-1)

This Week’s Results:

  • Sat, Dec 7 vs MIN- 6-3 L

Upcoming Schedule:

  • Wed, Dec 18 @ NYC- 7 p.m. ET, Prudential Center, Newark, NJ (TSN, MSG, thepwhl.com)

Christmas Song: Last Christmas- Wham!

Last Christmas, I gave you my heart/But the very next day, you gave it away/This year, to save me from tears/I’ll give it to someone special.

Even the band name is appropriate for what happened this week. After giving the Sceptres my heartfelt props last week for doing well without Natalie Spooner, they gave away all that goodwill by losing to the Frost in an unexpectedly high-scoring game. So, it’ll be interesting to see if they can bounce back quickly to save their fans from more tears this week.

The Sceptres played A Game this week. It’s impressive they managed to score three times given they had just 24 shots on goal, but their defense was messy and all told, it’s a game to forget. But, bad games happen, so it’s no reason to panic. However, the defense has an extremely tough test this week. The Sirens’ top line of Fillier, Carpenter, and Eldridge are the top three league leaders in points with a combined six goals and nine assists, and captain Micah Zandee-Hart is fourth with four assists. They must bring a much better performance this week, or it'll be another ugly game.

#5. Boston Fleet

Bard (center) pumps her fists and yells in celebration. Knight and Bilka are coming in for a hug from the right, while Keller skates in from the left. They are all wearing green home uniforms.
Sydney Bard celebrates her first PWHL goal with her teammates. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Previous Ranking: 6 (+1)

This Week’s Results:

  • Sun, Dec 8 vs NYC- 4-2 W

Upcoming Schedule:

  • Tue, Dec 17 vs OTT- 7 p.m. ET, Tsongas Center, Lowell, MA (NESN, Amazon Prime, thepwhl.com)

Christmas Song: Happy Xmas (War is Over)- John Lennon

So this is Christmas/And what have you done?/Another year over/And a new one just begun/And so this is Christmas/I hope you had fun/The near and the dear ones/The old and the young/A very merry Christmas/And a happy New Year/Let’s hope it’s a good one/Without any fear.

So this is what happens when you score goals? What have the Fleet done? It’s certainly more fun to watch. Now, let’s hope it's the start of a good stretch for the team and they don't give fans any reason to fear.

The Fleet got their first win (and points, for that matter) of the season this week. They still had a discipline problem and made Frankel continue her reign as Chief Human Highlight Reel of the PWHL for a bit, but it was a big step in the right direction. However, as much as the offense was a problem last season, so was consistency for most of the season. So, it might be best to keep any optimism cautious until they keep it together for more than one game in a row.

#6. Ottawa Charge

Serdachny (right in red) looks down at the puck as she skates out from just inside the trapezoid. A Montréal player (left in cream) is coming in to try to poke poke the puck away.
Danielle Serdachny skates from behind the net with the puck. Photo courtesy of the PWHL.

Previous Ranking: 4 (-2)

This Week’s Results:

  • Fri, Dec 6 vs MTL- 2-1 L

Upcoming Schedule:

  • Tue, Dec 17 @ BOS- 7 p.m. ET, Tsongas Center, Lowell, MA (Amazon Prime, NESN, thepwhl.com)
  • Thu, Dec 19 @ MIN- 8 p.m. ET, Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN (TSN, thepwhl.com)

Christmas Song: Believe- Josh Groban

Believe in what your heart is saying/Hear the melody that's playing/There's no time to waste/There's so much to celebrate/Believe in what you feel inside/And give your dreams the wings to fly/You have everything you need/If you just believe.

Dropping the Charge two spots for losing a close game is not exactly fair, but other teams forced my hand. So, instead of hearing my negativity, believe in what your heart is saying: the Charge haven’t been bad. There’s no time for them to waste in getting more points, but they have potential: they just need to believe in it.

So far this season, the Charge are who I expected them to be. They’re not a bad team, but they’re nothing super special. Being just good at all positions is rarely enough to win games in this league; you must be exceptional in at least one. They got captain Brianne Jenner back this week after she missed the first two games with an injury which is a positive, but it didn't change much on the ice. The Charge have potential, but they need to show more as a team to start changing my mind that they’ll be on the outside of the playoffs looking in again this spring.

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