PMC Hosts Second Women's Hockey Game in PWHPA Dream Gap Tour; Team Harvey's Defeats Team Scotiabank 5-2

The Professional Women’s Hockey Player’s Association (PWHPA) made their stop in Peterborough, showcasing the best of women’s hockey as the top-rated Team Harvey’s (Montréal) defeated Team Scotiabank (Calgary), 5-2 at the Peterborough Memorial Centre (PMC) on Friday afternoon.

The first PHWPA game hosted by the PMC was back on Feb. 19 last year. Photo courtesy of David Pickering and the Peterborough Petes.

The Dream Gap Tour is part of a PWHPA OHL Showcase that features top professional and Olympic women's hockey players, including Olympic and world champion Marie-Philip Poulin, Rebecca Johnston, Blayre Turnbull, Jessie Eldridge and more. It promotes and creates awareness for women’s hockey.

“I am a big believer in what we're doing,” said Poulin. "Having us to go to different communities and having a rink full of kids screaming at us and seeing all the little boys and girls coming to us, watching us and screaming our names, I think the awareness is there and I think having family bring their kids is step one.”

This was the first school game hosted by the Peterborough Petes where over 2,400 elementary school students were in attendance, as part of the 3,480 fans at the game. Players wanted to set an example for the young fans, particularly the girls to see that becoming a professional hockey player was achievable.

“We have respect and the eyes of all those young girls and for us to be able to put on a show for the young boys in the crowd today and get their push and all of them behind us is even bigger for us to move this forward,” said Eldridge.

Eldridge opened the scoring for Team Harvey’s, 12:13 into the game with assists from Laura Fortino and Lauriane Rougeau. Eldridge barrelled in with a backhand shot, beating goaltender Amanda Makela for a 1-0 lead. Fortino followed up her assist with a goal with just under four minutes left to play, rifling the top corner for a 2-0 lead for Team Harvey’s. Sophia Shaver tacked on her first assist of the game with that goal. Blayre Turnbull responded in quick fashion for Team Scotiabank and she was able to snipe one past Ann-Renée Desbiens to cut the deficit in half. Under two minutes later, Scotiabank evened the game as Ella Shelton picked up the loose change on a juicy rebound and chipped it in for a 2-2 tie.

It would be difficult to have Canadian women’s hockey without mentioning the three-time Olympic gold medalist Poulin otherwise known as ‘Captain Clutch’ as she marked her stamp with a rebound goal late in the second period with help from Jacquie Greco and Emily Clark for a 3-2 Team Harvey’s lead. Eldridge extended the lead for Harvey’s. She chipped in a rebound from a Clark shot for her second goal of the game, making it 4-2 going into the third.

Team Harvey kept their momentum going as halfway through the period, Scotiabank turned over the puck in the neutral zone. Bailey Larson intercepted the pass and wristed it past Makela for a 5-2 lead. Poulin had a breakaway chance but was denied by Makela including a second rebound shot to prevent a second goal from the three-time world champion gold medalist. Scotiabank tried to make a push but Harvey’s was able to maintain offensive zone pressure and run out the clock for the 5-2 win.

Eldrige, Fortino and Shelton were the first, second and third starts of the game respectively.

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