ESPN to start streaming women’s hockey games
Last two events of new league picked up
The final two stops of the Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association’s Dream Gap Tour will have a much larger platform.
The last two events of the 2019-20 season — in Philadelphia this weekend and in Arizona a week later — will be streamed on ESPN+ to a national audience and Monumental Sports Network, a monthly pay-per-stream website outside of the Washington, D.C., area.
Previously, all the association’s events have been broadcast live on YouTube. The games will continue to be on CBC Gem App in Canada.
It’s the first broadcast deal for the PWHPA in the states since it formed in May. Unlike YouTube, though, games won’t be available to watch forever; ESPN streams will only be available for 30 days and Monumental will have them through June 2020.
There’s been no announcement or comment of any of the monetary aspects of the deal, including if the PWHPA profits from the agreements or if the association paid to have their games streamed.
Two Merrimack Beauts
There’s just one week left of the National Women’s Hockey League regular season, but it’s also the time of year collegiate teams are being eliminated and seniors become free agents.
Two such free agents from Merrimack College in North Andover, all-time leading scorer Mikyla Grant-Mentis and goaltender Léa-Kristine Demers, signed with the Buffalo Beauts for the rest of the season.
“We are very excited to welcome Mikyla and LéaKristine to the Beauts,” Buffalo general manager Mandy Cronin said in a news release. “We are on a mission to bring the Isobel Cup back to Buffalo, and we believe these two highly-skilled young players can help us do that.”
The Beauts are already locked in to play in the wild card game against the Connecticut Whale on Friday, March 6, with the winner facing the 23-1 Boston Pride at Warrior Ice Arena in the Isobel Cup semi-final.
Grant-Mentis led the Warriors with 20 goals and 33 points and was second in
Hockey East in goals overall. Demers finished eighth in the nation with 795 saves and posted .906 save percentage in 2019-20 for the Warriors.
The Beauts face the Riveters in a back-to-back series this weekend to close out their regular season.
Pride prep for playoffs
The Pride are off for the final week of the NWHL season. They have completed their fifth regular season with a 23-1 record and the top seed in the postseason.
Jillian Dempsey finished with 40 points, which will lead the league unless Madison Packer of the Riveters has an eight-point weekend. McKenna Brand of the Pride finished behind Dempsey with 37 points.
Brand (19 goals) finished behind Minnesota’s Allie Thunstrom, who had 21. Dempsey finished right behind them with 17. Dempsey enters the weekend leading with 23 assists, just two ahead of Minnesota’s Amanda Boulier.
Rookie goalie Lovisa Selander likely has a handle on the top goals against average at 1.71 and a .941 save percentage, both ahead of Minnesota’s Amanda Levielle.
Selander should be a candidate for the league’s goalie of the year and rookie of the year awards, while Dempsey has a fast track on the MVP race.