PWHPA heads to Ottawa

Four PWHPA matches plus an all-star game are coming to and around the National Capital Region.

The PWHPA will return to Canada’s capital region this weekend with four regular season games on Friday and Saturday. They will also host its first-ever all-star game Sunday.

The two games on Friday will take place in communities on opposite sides of Ottawa. Adidas and Scotiabank will play at 4:45 p.m. on Dec. 9 in Kemptville, about 45 minutes south of Ottawa. Meanwhile, Harvey’s and Sonnet will play across the Ottawa river in Gatineau, Que., at 8 p.m. that same day.

On Saturday, the teams will play another two games at the Canadian Tire Centre in the west end of Ottawa. Adidas and Sonnet will play at 3 p.m. and Scotiabank and Harvey’s at 7 p.m.

The four games will close out the 2022 half of the PWHPA’s 2022-23 Dream Gap Tour. Four months ago, we were asking “What’s up with the PWHPA?” wondering what their 2022-23 season would look like. There were rumours that the PWHPA could be forming a new league, and it could be coming in late 2022 or early 2023. That didn’t happen, but we’ve been treated to two months of PWHPA games with cumulative points. The teams have played seven games, with more scheduled into the new year.

Harvey’s have established themselves at the top of the PWHPA standings with a dominant performance thus far. Adidas and Scotiabank are in a tight race for the second-place spot. Adidas has a slight advantage, but the teams have produced similar offensive and defensive stats. Either team could come out of the weekend ahead of the other, but neither could pass Harvey’s in the points.

Sonnet sits at the bottom, having won just two of seven. Their offence has not been substantially worse than other teams. Sonnet are tied on goal difference with Adidas and Scotiabank, but they are consistently on the wrong side of tight games.

This weekend will be decisive for Sonnet. They will be right back in the race with the other two if they can squeak out their first win in a month. If they lose both this weekend, they will fall further out of the race.

The games will be followed by the first-ever PWHPA all-star game and skills competition on Sunday. Saturday and Sunday will be broadcast in Canada on TSN and RDS.

Update: The date 2022-23 was corrected on Dec. 7.