One more time for the season. Edmonton’s Rogers Place is the site for the final stop on the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) Takeover Tour for 2025-26, with the Vancouver Goldeneyes facing off with the Boston Fleet. Tuesday’s game is the second PWHL neutral-site game in Edmonton this season. The Goldeneyes also played in the first one, a 3-2 overtime loss on Dec. 27 to the Minnesota Frost, the league’s two-time defending champion. It’s another homecoming for Emerence Maschmeyer, the Goldeneyes goalie from the nearby town of Bruderheim who suited up in the December game. “Especially being a mother, it means a lot to me to be able to give back and to be able to have interactions with young fans,” the 31-year-old told CTV News Edmonton on Monday after practice at the Downtown Community Arena. “You never know what conversation will spark a dream, so for me, taking the time to have those moments with each and every single fan is super important for me. But of course, here in Edmonton, being so, so close to my roots, it means a lot.” And it’s a return to the Prairies for Sophie Shirley, who hails from Saskatoon. The Fleet forward said Monday it’s the first time she’s played this close to home. Between 20 to 30 of the 26-year-old’s family members will be in attendance for Tuesday’s game. “It’s a really cool moment for me, and a moment to kind of give back and then say thanks to all the people who have helped me get here,” Shirley told CTV News Edmonton. The second-place Fleet come into Tuesday’s game on a four-game winning streak with a record of 13 regulation wins, five overtime wins, two OT losses and four regulation losses for 51 points, while the Goldeneyes sport a record of 7-1-4-13. Regulation wins are worth three points in the standings, overtime/shootout wins two points and OT/SO losses one point. The 16-game league also saw neutral-site games in Calgary, Winnipeg, Halifax, Hamilton, Chicago, Detroit, Denver, Dallas and Washington, D.C. Thursday’s stop at Calgary’s Saddledome, a 2-1 Toronto Sceptres win over the Ottawa Charge, drew 16,150 spectators. The Goldeneyes and the Seattle Torrent began play in 2025-26 to bring the number of teams in the PWHL to eight. The league has said it wants to add two to four more expansion teams next season. Last season at the lone neutral-site PWHL games at Rogers Place, the Toronto Sceptres beat the Ottawa Charge 3-2 in overtime on Feb. 16 in front of a capacity crowd of 17,518. The PWHL set another professional women’s hockey attendance record in the U.S., with the 2-1 New York Sirens victory over the Seattle Torrent at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night drawing a crowd of 18,006. The previous U.S. attendance high was 17,335 at Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on Feb. 27. With files from CTV News Edmonton’s Brandon Lynch
