In many ways, the Seattle Torrent picked a tough year to be a PWHL expansion franchise. But oh, girl, did they pick the right place.
The most important thing Saturday at Climate Pledge Arena wasn’t that the Torrent fell to the Montreal Victoire in a shootout, 2-1. Or that the Torrent concluded their season with nine wins in 30 games, or that they finished last in the eight-team league.
The most important thing wasn’t even that Seattle lost a tiebreaker to their expansion twins, the Vancouver Goldeneyes. By virtue of not beating the Victoire, Seattle lost out on earning the top overall pick in the 2026 PWHL Entry Draft.
All of these numbers matter. Just not as much as this one: 17,151. That’s the number of available seats for hockey inside Climate Pledge. With the Torrent out of the playoffs, on a pleasant spring weekend evening, every one of those 17,151 seats were filled with fans who embraced the Torrent all season.
“We Love Playing Here”
“It means everything to us,” forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis marveled in an intermission TV interview. “It’s unreal to think that we’re not making it to the playoffs, and they all showed up here for us.”
“On behalf of our entire team, we love playing here,” gushed Torrent defender Cayla Barnes. “We felt welcomed from day one. We felt the love and support night in and night out. Seattle fans blew us out of the water. We could have never even imagined and dreamed of what it was.”
Two times the Torrent sold out CPA. Home crowds on four occasions exceeded 16,000. Twice, the Torrent broke the U.S. attendance record for women’s hockey. Fittingly, when that record was smashed for a third time – 18,006 for a New York Sirens game Apr. 4 at Madison Square Garden – the Torrent were providing the opposition.
GM Meghan Turner came to expect Torrent fans at MSG and everywhere else. “The Seattle fan base brings it every night. They travel to every single (away) game, too.”
Olympics Glory, Torrent Pain
Four members of the Torrent – Hilary Knight, Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter, and Cayla Barnes – captured gold for Team USA at February’s Winter Olympics in Italy. Unfortunately, that success added to the challenge of the Torrent season.
The Olympics interrupted the season twice: first, so players who were part of their country’s national teams could travel and prepare. In addition to the Americans, for Seattle that meant the absence of Canada’s Julia Gosling and Czechia’s Aneta Tejralová. Then there was a separate extended break for the Games themselves.
An expansion roster of all new players could ill-afford the multiple disruptions of its rhythm, because familiarity is such a key component of the sport. Not to mention the lack of interaction with the Olympics six.
The tournament also proved painful, as both Knight and Bilka incurred injuries in Milan. Knight had already suffered a torn MCL when she scored a dramatic game-tying goal for Team USA late in the gold medal game against Canada. USA won 2-1 in overtime, Knight’s 2nd Olympics gold.
However, Knight would miss several Torrent games rehabbing. Bilka’s news was more dire; she was declared out for the season. On a Torrent team hard-pressed for goals, losing two of their top forwards proved a hurdle they couldn’t jump.
Seattle Chased The Game All Season
The Torrent all season displayed resilience, especially at home for their die-hard fandom. They had to because Seattle scored first just eight times in 30 games. They didn’t tally in the first five minutes all season, while the opposition did 10 times.
Yet they rallied to score the second-most 3rd period goals of any team. In fact, their 30 goals in the final period almost matched the 33 scored in the 1st and 2nd combined.
So it was against the Victoire. It took 54 minutes for Seattle to score, Carpenter slamming home a power play rebound. But that was enough to tie the game 1-1, because scrappy Seattle team defense and goalie Corinne Schroeder (36 saves) had allowed only a 5-on-3 Montreal tally. This was against a Victoire club that would finish atop the league standings.
Season Highlights Often Came Late
Many of the times Seattle came all the way back to win involved late-game heroics.
- Apr. 8, 5-3 win at Ottawa: Natalie Snodgrass breaks a 3-3 tie with 1:21 left.
- Mar. 11, 3-2 win vs. Boston: Danielle Serdachny breaks a 2-2 tie with 3:45 left.
- Jan. 3, 3-2 SO win at Toronto (Hamilton): Alex Carpenter forces overtime with 4:21 left.
- Dec. 3, 2-1 win vs. New York: Carpenter and Knight both score power play goals in the final 2 minutes, at 18:36 and 18:58 to rally from a 1-0 deficit.
Tuesday in part 2, examining the Torrent culture built this season.
Earlier Torrent:
— Goldeneyes – Seattle 6-5 Game A True Spectacle
Earlier Kraken:
— Kraken Bosses Are Hoping And Dreaming
