Looking to End the Homestand on a High Note: Previewing the Torrent Hosting the Victoire, December 23rd, 2025
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA - To close out their first-ever homestand in franchise history, a five-game set where they’ve recorded two regulation wins and two regulation losses in four games, the Seattle Torrent will welcome the red-hot Montréal Victoire to town for a 7 PM PST puck drop at Climate Pledge Arena. The Torrent are coming off a difficult loss to the league-leading Boston Fleet, halting progress on a potential winning streak after being New York and Ottawa. The Victoire have won four straight, most recently beating the Vancouver Goldeneyes back on Saturday by a final score of 4-2. Here’s some basic information to know for this matchup ahead of puck drop at CPA!
The Seattle Torrent scored two power-play goals late to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in their game against the New York Sirens on December 3rd, 2025, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Liz Wolter for Circling Seattle Sports)
Torrent seeking a strong end to the homestand
The first homestand in Seattle’s franchise history has been a mixed bag, figuratively and literally, as they’ve split the four games with two regulation wins and losses. They’ve displayed flashes of what the roster truly can be, like the feverish comeback late to stun the New York Sirens for Seattle’s first win in franchise history and the commanding victory over the Ottawa Charge in the game after. Games like the inaugural home opener against the Minnesota Frost and the last contest they played versus the Boston Fleet showcased a roster that looked how an expansion team typically does: disjointed and lacking cohesion. There have been surprises, like rookie goaltender Hannah Murphy proving immediately why general manager Meghan Turner used a second-round pick on her, as well as some expected things like Hannah Bilka, Alex Carpenter, and Hilary Knight all producing at a solid level early on. Head coach Steve O’Rourke has often said that this will be a “process” for Seattle to come together and be the group they can be truly, but there have been times this homestand where the Torrent appear to be streamlining that. Like Boston back on Sunday, Montréal provides a great test of where this group is in their “process.”
“We knew Boston Fleet would be a strong opponent and would challenge our team details. There were areas where we didn’t deliver to our standard, and others where we did, but overall we didn’t play to our full potential in the direct, physical, and fast style of play that defines us. We also understood coming into the season that this would not be a linear process. The positive is we get another opportunity quickly to test ourselves against another very good opponent in Montreal Victoire on a short turnaround, and that’s exactly where growth happens.”
Victoire rolling along to start the season
The Montréal Victoire will come into this contest at Climate Pledge Arena as the team sitting just behind the Boston Fleet for first place in the PWHL standings. Montréal hasn’t lost a game since their season opener to the Fleet, a 2-0 defeat in Boston, as the Victoire have rattled off four consecutive victories with three of them coming by at least a two-goal margin. The current stretch for the Victoire represents the third four-game or longer win streak in the Montréal franchise's history. Previous streaks of similar length came last December, also four games, and six straight in a run from January through to February last season. While there is obvious firepower with the Victoire, hello Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey, Montréal hasn’t relied on their top players to produce all the offense. The Victoire have 10 different players with a goal this season, second most in the league behind the Fleet (12; Boston has played two more games than Montréal). Getting Boston and this Montréal back-to-back on the calendar certainly provides the Torrent with two opportunities in quick succession to measure themselves.
“We’re focusing above all on ourselves, because a large part of what happens is in our own hands. The expansion teams are still in the process of establishing their identity and their style of play. We can talk about certain players and their qualities. But most of the time, what matters is concentrating on what we can control and on how we want to play.”
This isn’t a giveaway or unity night for the Torrent, but the franchise will celebrate the festive season as those wearing their best holiday sweater to the game will have a chance to win 25,000 points courtesy of Alaska Airlines.
Lineup notes
Lineup notes will come once we hear from Torrent head coach Steve O’Rourke, set to hold his pregame press conference at 5:45 PM PST. The main question with the lineup for Seattle currently is the availability of rookie center Jenna Buglioni, who went down hard after a hit along the boards by Boston Fleet forward Shay Maloney in the third period of the team’s game back on Sunday. She didn’t return, listed out with an upper body injury, and O’Rourke didn’t have an update postgame.
Starting goaltenders
This section will also be updated once the teams’ lineups come out, which typically happens around 90 minutes before puck drop, which would be 5:30 PM PST ahead of tonight’s game.
Sandra Abstreiter got the start in goal for the Victoire during their road win over the Vancouver Goldeneyes, so we’d expect to see veteran Ann-Renée Desbiens between the pipes tonight for Montréal. Desbiens has allowed one or fewer goals in each of her last three starts, all Victoire wins. Last season, she made six starts with one goal against or fewer. Her 0.99 goals-against-average and .966 save percentage are currently the second-best figures in the PWHL, better than the 1.86 GAA and .932 SV% she finished the 2024-25 season with as the league’s Goaltender of the Year.
For the Torrent, it’s hard to say where their thought process is with goaltending, as O’Rourke has noted on a few instances that the team is making its netminder decisions game by game. Given what we’ve seen so far, we’d expect to see rookie Hannah Murphy get her third career start.
Montréal Victoire goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens during the teams PWHL Takeover Tour game against the Boston Fleet on January 5th, 2025 at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)
Key players to watch
For the Torrent, three players that we’re watching tonight are Julia Gosling, Cayla Barnes, and Jessie Eldridge. Through five games, Gosling has been a point-per-game player, but her numbers saw a boost thanks to her two-goal performance in Seattle’s inaugural game. Julia has an elite shot, showcased on her second goal of that aforementioned game against Vancouver, and we’d like to see that true asset used as it hasn’t quite been on display in recent games. Finding Gosling on the flank for a one-timer could certainly help the Torrent power play get going again after a quiet showing last game.
Cayla Barnes is a fun choice not only for the fact that she’ll be going up against her former team, one of four former Victoire players on the Seattle roster, but she’s been an underrated force so far for the Torrent. Barnes can drive plays and does a lot of dirty work on the power play to lay the foundation, in addition to how much ice time she’s tasked with. It would be fitting for Barnes to be the first Seattle defender to score a goal this season, especially so against her old team.
And lastly with Jessie Eldridge, it’s felt like the former New York Sirens forward has been “snake bitten” until last game when she redirected an Aneta Tejralová blast from the blueline to ensure that there wouldn’t be a shutout. Eldridge has had some golden looks on goal in the games prior, including a couple of pucks that hit the iron, and we’re hoping that the goal in the last game opens the floodgates to get her game going.
Cayla Barnes, former Montréal Victoire defender and current Seattle Torrent player, during the PWHL Takeover Tour game against the Boston Fleet on January 5th, 2025, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)
Looking over at the Victoire, it’s hard not to pick the power couple of Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. “Pou” scored her second goal of the season back on Saturday in Vancouver, pushing her career total to 31 across 56 career games in the PWHL, the most in league history. The Victoire captain has now scored against every PWHL opponent except Seattle, and has scored at Climate Pledge Arena as a member of Team Canada during the Rivalry Series on November 20th, 2022. Additionally, Poulin has been critical in the faceoff dot for the Victoire, posting a 66.3% success rate in the circle. Only one Torrent center has a winning efficiency on draws, and that’s Alex Carpenter at 61.4%.
Laura Stacey has seen success at Climate Pledge Arena before, scoring on the power play during that Takeover Tour game in January. Stacey has one of the team’s two power play goals already this season after tying for second among all PWHL skaters with four scores on the player advantage last season. The points aren’t yet coming in bunches for Stacey, but she certainly has the ability and frame to do so, and she’s posting a +3 plus/minus so far this season. That duo will be dangerous, and stopping them will do wonders for Seattle in this game, if they can achieve that.
Lastly, rookie forward Natálie Mlýnková out of Czechia finds herself tied for second amongst Montréal skaters in points, which is pretty impressive when you look at the names she finds herself around. Mlýnková has seen consistent success internationally with the Czech national team and during her collegiate career with Vermont and Minnesota at finding the twine, and she did so in the last game against the Goldeneyes. The rookie will be a dark horse candidate to hurt the Torrent tonight.
Montréal Victoire forward and captain Marie-Philip Poulin during the team's PWHL Takeover Tour game against the Boston Fleet on January 5th, 2025, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Rio Giancarlo for Circling Seattle Sports)
Storylines to note
Will the Victoire become the second team in the league to beat both expansion teams?
The Fleet became the first team to defeat both expansion teams when they took down the Torrent on Sunday. Playing these teams back-to-back would be a tall task for any team in the PWHL, but for a Seattle team still looking to build chemistry and completely click? Even more so, it will be interesting to see how the Torrent bounce back from a disconnected loss on Sunday against Boston. If the answer to that question is a flat performance, the Victoire will become the second team in the league to beat the team newbies.
Can the Torrent power play get back to its strong success?
Seattle’s player advantage was humming for two games, or really a game and two minutes, spanning from the comeback win over New York to the throttling of Ottawa the next time out. When looking at the Boston game and realizing that the Torrent got two power play chances, you’d think they’d at least perhaps get one conversion right? Wrong, as Seattle actually had a net negative on those two advantages, as they gave up their first jailbreak in their young history as a franchise. There’s still plenty to be excited about with the Torrent power play, given that they haven’t truly clicked yet, and some of the best players in the world are on the first unit. Like the team overall, they’ll be tested against a Montréal team that currently owns the second-best penalty kill in the PWHL.
Will Seattle start faster?
The Torrent haven’t exactly been a team that strikes early, outside of that inaugural game up in Vancouver. Seattle has started sluggishly in three of their four games on this homestand so far, typically lacking shots on goal by the time we head to the first intermission. It’s obviously easy for us to say “shoot the puck” earlier, but you’d have to wonder if just getting a few pucks on net early could help the Torrent snap into game form quicker. There were certainly tools for the team to do so against Boston on Sunday, with those two power-play opportunities and a fast pace of play, but a disjointed Seattle failed to take advantage. While the Torrent have generally been able to avoid teams starting hot against them, you don’t wanna play from behind against teams like Boston (Which they did last game, and lost) and Montréal.
The Seattle Torrent scored two power-play goals in their win over the Ottawa Charge on December 17th, 2025, at Climate Pledge Arena. (Photos by Andy Glass for Circling Seattle Sports)
How to watch
Locally, here in the greater Seattle area, fans can watch on FOX 13+. The game will be available in the Canadian market on Amazon Prime Video, while it will be available everywhere on the PWHL YouTube channel & thepwhl.com. David Korzeniowski continues to be on play-by-play for games here in Seattle, while Gigi Marvin joins him for a second consecutive game as the usual analyst, Alison Lukan, is back home for the holiday season. Lina Setaghian, a host and producer for Sportsnet 650, will be the reporter with that crew. The French crew features Frédéric Lord on play-by-play, Kathy Desjardins as the analyst, Alexandre Despatie as the studio host, and Ann-Sophie Bettez as the studio analyst.
What’s next after this?
Following tonight’s contest, the final date on a five-game homestand, the Seattle Torrent are scheduled for a few days off (Holiday season!) before they head out on a four-game road trip, including a stop on this year’s PWHL Takeover Tour to start things out. That game is the next one on the docket for the Torrent, as they’ll head to Texas to take on the New York Sirens for the second time this season, on Sunday, December 28th, with a puck drop time of 3 PM PST at the American Airlines Center in Dallas.
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