The Vancouver Goldeneyes played from behind for most of the team’s first franchise game.
Inside a loud Pacific Coliseum, in front of nearly 15,000 fans, it would have been easy to panic. But each time the Seattle Torrent scored, Vancouver struck back.
With less than three minutes left between Seattle and a coveted three standings points awarded for a regulation win, Vancouver alternate captain Claire Thompson scored to force overtime.
Ultimately, it was Vancouver that dealt the final blow in overtime on Friday, securing a 4-3 win over Seattle. It was game one for both expansion teams, and the beginning of what should be a bitter west coast rivalry.
Goldeneyes forward Abby Boreen was the overtime hero, thanks to a perfect pass from Tereza Vanišová less than two minutes into the extra frame.
“To come back from being down practically the whole game, I think it shows a lot of character in the room,” Boreen said.
Goldeneyes edge Torrent with Boreen’s OT winner in record-breaking PWHL debut for both teams
Seattle’s Julia Gosling had two goals in the loss, including Seattle’s first franchise goal during the first period.
Vancouver’s own milestone came just three minutes later, when Sarah Nurse capitalized on a Seattle turnover to create a two-on-one opportunity.
Nurse’s initial plan was to find her linemate, Michelle Karvinen, but she opted for the shot when she saw she didn’t have a passing lane. The puck went in, and her name will go into the history books as the first to score as a Goldeneye.
It capped off what had been an emotional first period for Nurse. Out of all the big games she’s played in her career, this one felt different.
“It felt like something different was in the air like I’ve never experienced it,” she said.
Vancouver goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer made 18 saves in the win. It was her first regular-season game back in action since an injury put the brakes on a solid season with the Ottawa Charge back in March.
Vancouver’s head coach, Brian Idalski, liked his team’s game on Friday.
“This group has talent, has ability,” Idalski said. “We should be able to put the puck in the net. There was no reason to panic. Some of the things that went wrong are things that we can easily clean up. [It] was kind of the first game not being structured and disciplined and managing pucks as well as we like.”
Goldeneyes’ Sarah Nurse scores 1st goal in franchise’s history
It was a night of new beginnings for women’s hockey in Vancouver. The sold-out crowd set a new PWHL attendance record for a team’s home arena.
A brand new video board hung from the Coliseum’s wooden rafters, above the Goldeneyes’ logo painted at centre ice. Vancouver is the first PWHL team to be the anchor tenant of an arena.
A few hours before she’d make history as the Goldeneyes’ first goal scorer, Nurse was unveiled as part of the team’s leadership group, along with Thompson and their captain, defender Ashton Bell.
Nurse spent some time that day walking around the Pacific Coliseum’s concourse, taking in the team’s branding, and even the new merch shop that was specifically created for the Goldeneyes.
Everything in this rink was built for them, and that’s something Nurse has never experienced before.
“We’ve never ever been a priority before — the main priority,” Nurse said.
As much as the focus was on the future on Friday, it was hard not to think about the past inside the 57-year-old Coliseum.
Players from the 1994-95 Vancouver Canucks, the last pro team to play here, were introduced at the beginning of the game. So was Bronson Maschmeyer, the Goldeneyes’ goaltender’s older brother. He competed for the WHL’s Vancouver Giants, which was the last team to play in this arena a decade ago.
Retired Team Canada star Meghan Agosta, who’s now a police officer for the Vancouver Police Department, delivered the puck for the ceremonial faceoff, which was dropped by soccer great Christine Sinclair.
Canadian Legend, Christine Sinclair, on site to help us drop the puck on season 1 🤩 <a href=”https://t.co/gXsKK2V6Nf”>pic.twitter.com/gXsKK2V6Nf</a>
And in the standings watching it all was Lori Parker, who’s been waiting years for this moment.
Twenty years ago, Parker was an assistant coach with the Vancouver Griffins, a team in the National Women’s Hockey League. There was talent and speed on that team, from the likes of players like Cammi Granato and Shelley Looney.
What she saw on the Coliseum ice on Friday was the vision the players and staff in the NWHL had back then. But it’s taken time, starts and stops, to get here.
“I’m proud of what [Griffins’ owner] Diane Nelson tried to put forward back then and ultimately if that league hadn’t started, maybe we still wouldn’t even be here, 20-some odd years later,” Parker said. “There had to be stepping stones somewhere, for all of us.”
What to expect from PWHL expansion teams Vancouver, Seattle
Seattle and Vancouver were announced as the locations of the PWHL’s two newest teams this past spring after the league spent months scouting for new markets. For Vancouver, the ability for the team to play in its own arena was a massive selling point.
Over the last week, staff at the Coliseum were putting the final touches on the building before thousands of fans streamed through the doors on Friday.
Rally towels were placed on every single seat. Boxes of merchandise were unpacked to sell on site.
When it all came to life on Friday, the lines to buy merch snaked long through the concourse, something that caused a bit of stress for the league’s executive vice president of business operations, Amy Scheer.
But the long lines didn’t seem to matter for some fans. Plenty of people in the Coliseum were wearing blue Vancouver merch. Nurse took a second to look around the whole arena, and was struck by how many were dressed in Vancouver’s colours.
“It just seemed like everybody has a piece of Goldeneyes’ merch and we got a logo like two weeks ago,” Nurse said.
She turned toward Scheer, who was watching the post-game press conference from the media room.
“That’s no shade,” she said with a laugh.
Beyond the merch lines, Scheer noticed the young and older faces in the Coliseum’s stands, and the mix of the types of people the PWHL draws.
“It’s just a place full of joy,” she said.
Here’s everything you need to know about Vancouver’s new PWHL team
