Sceptres Fall to Frost While Alyssa Attends Her First PWHL Game of the Season

With a trip to Toronto planned for my full time job, I took a look at the Toronto Sceptres’ schedule in hopes I’d be able to catch a game either as a fan or in the press box. About a week out from leaving my hometown of Windsor to head to Toronto, I decided to take a look at tickets for the Sceptres vs. Frost game on a Sunday afternoon. I was not shocked by any means to see that tickets under the $150 price point per ticket were extremely hard to come by, and those were a tad out of my price range. I later realized that the Sceptres were hosting their Women's Empowerment Unity Game that day, and combined with the perfect storm of a 1pm puck drop on a Sunday afternoon, I decided to go the credential way.

When my head hit my pillow (or should I say my friend’s pillow, because I was staying with one of my closest friends outside of the city) on Sunday early morning at about 1:07am, I set an alarm that would give me plenty of time to get down to the rink well ahead of warmups and puck drop. What sleepy me failed to realize was that it was daylight savings time, and we would all be losing an hour of sleep, which, if you know me, is like telling me the world is ending.

After several snoozes on my alarms and even several new alarms set, I finally managed to get myself up and ready to head to the rink. I took an Uber to Coca-Cola Coliseum and the excitement finally hit. I was attending my first PWHL game of the season. I was going to be late, but that didn’t matter.

I picked up my media credential and entered the concourse just moments after Brooke McQuigge opened the scoring for the Frost. Despite the home team being down early and being heavily outshot, the energy in the crowd was electric. I knew it was going to take me a bit to find the press box and I needed to eat something, because if you’re keeping track at home, I slept in and I didn’t eat. 

I wanted one thing and one thing only. A hotdog. Well, I actually wanted two hotdogs, and that was exactly what I got myself. Two hotdogs, with ketchup and onions, and a bottle of Coke Zero to put a bow on what might be the most ridiculous breakfast from anyone in the Greater Toronto Area that day. And yes, those hotdogs were fantastic.

After scarfing down two arena hotdogs and attempting to not get any ketchup on my white sweater, which I would like to add, I've gotten quite good at not spilling the condiments from the arena hotdogs I’ve indulged in over the years. After going on a completely avoidable detour to the press box, I found my seat as the first period came to a close.

Before I go into the game itself, I’d like to share some of the joy that I witnessed while taking the longest way possible to the press box. Toronto hockey fans are different beasts. They care and love their hockey teams and players an incredible amount. I knew going into a 1pm puck drop game that I would see a fair share of younger fans (which I did), but one of my favourite things about attending PWHL games in any city, but especially Toronto, is the different age groups and different types of fans you see in attendance. 

While walking along the top of the lower bowl and the main concourse, you will find everything from poutine, countless types of beer for sale, your typical and old reliable arena snacks, and even a sign-making station. Hockey fans young and old were bouncing around trying to either make a sign to cheer on their favourite Sceptre or find a drink to enjoy in the second period. 

Something that also stuck out to me was the wide variety of merch available. I'm not just talking about your typical hats, shirts, jerseys, etc. No, no, the type of merch that’s available at Sceptres games blew me away. You have different shirts, different styles of sweaters, jerseys, pucks, scarves, and even pet clothing! You name it, I’m sure it was available to purchase. 

As the second period started, the Sceptres were being outshot 11-2 and had to kill off the remainder of a Julia Gosling penalty. Despite the low shooting affair, the Toronto fans were heavily into the game with countless cheers and chants, and even some boos for Britta Curl-Salemme riddled the crowd. Speaking of Britta Curl, she took her first penalty of the night following a really scary elbow to the face of Megan Carter. She would only get a two minute penalty on the play, but I won’t be shocked if the league looks at it further.

With just over a minute remaining in the second period, Renata Fast buried her fifth goal of the season with a shot through traffic to even the score. The Sceptres easily have the best goal song in the PWHL, by the way.

As the third period began, the Frost led the way in shots with 16 to the Sceptres' 10. All game it seemed like the Sceptres were having difficulties maintaining pressure in the Frost zone to generate the scoring chances they needed in order to beat Nicole Hensley, who, despite facing a low amount of shots, had been very solid for the Frost.

It was announced that the official attendance at the game was an impressive 8,510, making Sunday afternoon’s game a sellout for the Sceptres and their second highest attendance total of the season. This barely trailed their previous home game’s sellout against the Victoire, where there were 8,618 people in attendance for a Thursday night game.

As the clock trickled down, Toronto held the play for the final few minutes of the third period, but Nicole Hensley stayed strong for the Frost forcing the game to go to overtime. This would be the second time these two teams brought the game to overtime in the same building. Back in February, Renata Fast was the hero for the Sceptres when she scored the game winner in overtime. 

Heading into overtime, the two teams on the ice had scored the same amount of hotdogs that I had eaten.

The Frost held possession for a majority of the overtime where they had 3 shots to the Sceptres 0. Their fourth shot would be the final one they would need, as their captain came through and scored the overtime winner when she buried her own rebound past Campbell. Kendall Coyne Schofield’s winner was her tenth goal of the year. She continues to lead the Frost in the goal scoring and points department.

Despite the loss, the energy in the building during the game was something I am so grateful to have been part of. Troy Ryan in his post game was not happy with his team’s play in their loss. 

“I think we have to do a little bit of soul searching,” the Toronto head coach said. “You’ve got to reflect on a performance like that at this point in the season, you’ve got to ask some questions why.

The Sceptres don’t play again until March 19th and have 10 days to regroup and bunker down for the push towards playoffs. The PWHL Trade Deadline is also looming; the deadline is set for March 13th at 2pm ET.

I asked Troy Ryan how he and his team will approach the time off as the deadline is fast approaching. “Sometimes there’s some stress that comes with that [the deadline]. From a coaching point of view we try to just go business as usual,” Ryan shared with me. “And then also obviously trusting that Gina [Kingsbury] as a GM is going to do what’s best for the organization in the short term and in the long term.”

The Toronto Sceptres' next game is on March 19th, where they will host the last place New York Sirens.