PWHL
“I think they saw that they can play in a professional hockey league and they can sell out buildings that the men play in.”
Nearly 18,000 Fleet fans packed into TD Garden on Saturday. (Photo by: Barry Chin/Globe Staff).
Aerin Frankel, Alina Muller, and Megan Keller are no strangers to playing in Boston.
Frankel and Muller called Northeastern’s Matthews Arena home for four and five seasons, respectively, helping the Huskies win five Hockey East titles over that sustained stretch of dominance.
Keller anchored the BC Eagles’ blue line at Chestnut Hill for four seasons from 2014-19.
The trio’s respective hockey journeys have brought them back to Boston as franchise fixtures for the Boston Fleet — with Lowell’s Tsongas Center and BU’s Agganis Arena serving as their go-to rinks over the last two years.
But on Saturday night, a Fleet game in Boston felt different.
Perhaps it was the collective roar of nearly 18,000 that rained down on the Fleet’s stars as they braced for hockey on Causeway Street.
“I got chills,” Frankel admitted.
”We dream of playing in buildings like this, and especially in front of our fans,” Keller added.
When the Fleet — then dubbed “PWHL Boston” — first took to the ice in Lowell on January 4, 2024, the PWHL’s inaugural season felt like a collective victory for generations of women’s hockey players.
Years spent fighting for livable wages, benefits, and pro-level resources were finally rewarded with the inception of a sustainable women’s hockey league.
If that game at Tsongas stood as a testament to the potential of what professional women’s hockey could be in North America, Saturday’s sold-out game between the Fleet and Montreal Victoire felt like that dream being realized.
A week after the PWHL sold out Madison Square Garden, 17,850 fans packed into the Bruins’ home barn — with a sea of green and blue enveloping seats usually shrouded in hues of black and gold.
Even if Boston couldn’t overtake Montreal in a 1-0 defeat, Fleet head coach Kris Sparre believed that Saturday night still held plenty of weight — both for his team and the league as a whole.
“This is a big deal,” Sparre said. “You’re standing on that bench, and there are 17,000 people. They had the lights going on in the first little bit of the game. It’s so loud. The sound system here is incredible.”
“It’s a really great venue. We’re lucky to play at Tsongas, and the games we play at Agganis — those buildings rock. But this one’s three times the size, so you certainly feel that when you’re down on the bench, and I think our players did.”
The decibels didn’t lessen for most of the night on Causeway, especially for a matchup between two of the top teams in the PWHL.
Before the puck even dropped, Keller, Frankel, and the rest of their teammates had front-row seats to the rows of posters plastered up against the glass during warmups.
Some of those placards set the terms of a trade for a puck or twig, with one fan wagering a swap of their younger brother for some hockey gear. Fleet fans honored their favorite players by holding aloft signs featuring Keller and Frankel.
But it was clear what resonated the most for the Fleet among the scrapbook of banners and signs sandwiched into the glass.
One fan — her eyes barely peaking above a poster in the front row — held a small sheet above her head as Keller and Co. made their rounds.
An arrow on the board pointed down at the youngster as she watched her hockey heroes take to the Garden ice.
“Future Fleet Player”, it read.
TD Garden roared as one in approval when one fan showed off her own piece of artwork from the upper bowl.
“Now I know I can do it, too!” her message declared.
The presence of Boston sports greats like Zdeno Chara, Patrice Bergeron, and Derrick White might have added further validity to the Fleet’s standing as one of the sports teams woven into the fabric of this town.
But it was the promise rooted in those young fans’ messages that offered the greatest sign yet that the Fleet’s future in this city is only destined to shine bright in the coming years.
“It’s incredible,” Frankel, who turned aside 18 of 19 shots, said of Saturday’s atmosphere. “I think when you have the moment to look up and look in the stands and see all of the people there to support us and to support this league — it’s been a long time coming.
“Selling out this place is a huge accomplishment for women’s sports, women’s hockey, and I think seeing the impact that we have on the young girls is a really special thing.”
While sing-along ballads of Chappell Roan and Justin Bieber punctuated a joyous atmosphere at the Garden, those same pleasantries weren’t echoed between the Fleet and Victoire out on the frozen sheet.
Much like their counterparts in the NHL, Boston and Montreal traded verbal barbs, cross-checks, and shoves after just about every whistle.
A tally from Montreal forward Lina Ljungblom at 5:52 of the third period stood as the lone puck that sailed past Frankel, while Victoire netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens turned aside all 20 salvos that sailed her way.
“It’s no secret we have a rivalry with them,” Keller said of Montreal, who sit four points ahead of Boston in first place in the league. “It gets physical out there. We see them a lot, and saw them in the playoffs in year one, and we’re at the top right now, kind of battling for home ice here in the playoffs… .We wanted to come out and give the fans a game and give them some action and get them involved.
“Unfortunately, we didn’t get any in the back of the net tonight. But yeah, I think we’ll see them a few more times before the season’s over.”
A win in the standings? Perhaps not.
But a win for women’s hockey in Boston?
The cheers that never waned — from warmups until the final Fleet skater left the TD Garden ice — removed all doubt of such sentiment.
“They have something to look forward to when they’re our age,” Keller said of what younger fans could take away from Saturday’s game. “When we were growing up, we were dreaming of playing in the NHL.
“Tonight, I think they saw that they can play in a professional hockey league and they can sell out buildings that the men play in.”
Conor Ryan is a staff writer covering the Bruins, Celtics, Patriots, and Red Sox for Boston.com, a role he has held since 2023.
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