US women's hockey gold medalists return to PWHL action: When do they play?
The U.S. women’s hockey team came back to the United States from their gold medal run at the Winter Olympics to applause and jubilation from their fans.
Unlike in past Winter Olympics, most of the women’s team will continue to play hockey professionally.
The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) is in its third season. The league includes four teams from the U.S. and four from Canada. The PWHL teams were well represented on Team USA and helped put the league at the forefront for the millions who watched the entirety of the Olympics this month.
"I would take a week off in Mexico, but I understand that’s not possible," Taylor Heise joked in an interview with Fox News Digital. "But yeah, we’re all excited to go back and to get started back with the PWHL. It’s definitely a league that’s given us a platform to play on and kind of looking back to the WNBA and how they started. It’s a consistent grind, and it’s not just you go from here to here in two days.
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"With our expansions and everything, it’s definitely been a hard process for a lot of people, moving teams and such. But I just think, you know, 7.7 million people that tuned in for that gold medal game, which is amazing by the way, I just think it’s pretty special because I think we gained a lot of new fans.
"Regardless of if you’re just a women’s hockey fan or you tuned in to the Olympics and now realize that we play in a professional league, it’s pretty special. And I expect us to have a few more fans that show up for our games and decide that they want to be PWHL fans in the future."
There’s a handful of players who are still playing collegiate hockey, too. The women’s hockey season is in the midst of their conference playoffs.
Here’s when the gold medalists return to the ice.
The Boston Fleet had three players on Team USA this year. Megan Keller, Haley Winn and Aerin Frankel. Keller scored the game-winning goal against Canada in overtime to secure the gold medal while Frankel shut down the offense in a clutch goaltender moment. The Fleet are on top of the PWHL with a 10-2-2 record. Boston is back in action Saturday against the Ottawa Charge at 2 p.m. ET.
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The Minnesota Frost had a big representation on Team USA with six players. Lee Stecklein, Kelly Pannek, Grace Zumwinkle, Britta Curl-Salemme, Taylor Heise and Kendall Coyne Schofield all taking the ice for the Stars and Stripes. The Frost have a little more time to prepare for their next game, which takes place Sunday at 1 p.m. ET against the Montreal Victoire
. The Frost are 9-3-3 this season and are behind the Fleet in the PWHL standings.
Hayley Scamurra was the lone player from the Montreal Victoire to compete for Team USA and the defenseman brought home the gold medal. Montreal will take on the New York Sirens on Thursday at 7 p.m. ET. The Victoire are 10-5-0 this season and are in third in the PWHL standings.
Rory Guilday and Gwyneth Philips represented the Ottawa Charge while on Team USA in the Olympics. The Charge are in the middle of the PWHL standings with a 9-7-0 record. Ottawa will return to the ice on Saturday to take on the Boston Fleet at 2 p.m. ET.
Hilary Knight, the captain of Team USA, was among the four players from the Seattle Torrent on the Olympic roster. Cayla Barnes, Hanna Bilka and Alex Carpenter joined her. Seattle will need a big push in the second half of the season to get into the playoffs. The Torrent are 5-7-2 so far this season. They start their season again on Friday against the Toronto Sceptres at 10 p.m. ET.
There were a handful of players who were still in college who were playing for Team USA. Abbey Murphy (Minnesota), Joy Dunne (Ohio State) and Tessa Janecke (Penn State) were on the team with Wisconsin’s Caroline Harvey, Kristen Sims, Laila Edwards and Ava McNaughton. There was no Olympic break for their respective teams.
Minnesota, Penn State and Wisconsin are all in the Western College Hockey Association playoffs. Each team will play on Friday at 6 p.m. ET. The Golden Gophers are playing St. Cloud State, the Buckeyes will play St. Thomas and the Badgers take on Bemidji State.
The Nittany Lions are in the semifinals of the Atlantic Hockey America playoffs. Penn State returns to the ice Friday at 6 p.m. to take on Syracuse.