Seattle Draws Record Crowd of 16,014 for Home Debut, Falls 3-0 to Minnesota

SEATTLE, WA (November 28, 2025) – In front of 16,014 fans — breaking the record for the largest crowd for a women’s hockey game in a U.S. arena — the Seattle Torrent made their highly-anticipated home debut at Climate Pledge Arena, falling 3-0 to the two-time defending Walter Cup Champion Minnesota Frost on Friday afternoon. Frost forward Kelly Pannek led the way for Minnesota, notching two goals, backed by goaltender Nicole Hensley, making 30 saves to earn a shutout in her first start of the season.

The visiting Frost opened the scoring late in the first period, with Pannek netting her first goal of the season. After a scoreless middle frame, Seattle pushed back early in the third on the power play, but the Frost penalty kill held firm as Hensley delivered two point-blank stops to preserve the lead. After Pannek notched her second of the afternoon midway through the third, Grace Zumwinkle gave the Frost a 3-0 lead moments later with a power-play maker, her first tally of the campaign. Torrent goaltender Corinne Schroeder turned aside 22 shots in her home debut, making her second straight start of the season.

QUOTES

Seattle Head Coach Steve O’Rourke’s reflections on the team’s growth from game one: “I like a lot of things we did tonight — much better from Vancouver to tonight. I know the result isn’t what we want, but this is going to be a journey for us to get where we want and get this identity to go. There are a lot of good parts of this identity. We’ve been talking about playing faster, and we moved pucks way faster. Our defense didn’t overhandle pucks and got them up to our forwards, so we’re just building that repertoire. There was way less inconsistency tonight than we had against Vancouver — we were more consistent to our identity, and we just have to keep building on that and building our identity as we go.”

Torrent captain Hilary Knight on playing in front of a record-breaking crowd: “It’s super special. A lot of inaugural [experiences], but there’s something about Seattle that is just so special. I don’t know if it’s the rich history of women’s sports, how you all have started a movement well before we even got here, to the icons and the legends that have graced this arena. We could feel the love. I wish we got a win tonight just to celebrate everything, but the big takeaway is how special this was. A dream come true, pinch me moment.”

Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley on staying hungry after back-to-back championships: “I think that’s the definition of a competitor. I think we want to win every single night, obviously wanting to bounce back after a night one [loss]. We know it’s a long season and we try to stack points on top of each other so, yeah, I think that’s just being a competitor.”

Frost forward Kelly Pannek on the crowd in Seattle: “I was fortunate enough to play in a U.S.-Canada game here  — Nic [Hensley] was as well. It was a great crowd there, so we knew once this market was announced, they were going to have great fan support. They’ve supported women’s sports across all the other leagues. It’s fun to play in buildings like this when fans are engaged and loud. It’s great that they have a new team and set a new record, and it’s fun to see all the other markets in the U.S. compete to try to one-up that mark. Even if it’s not the crowd cheering for you, it’s so fun to play in a sold-out arena.”

NOTABLES

The crowd of 16,014 set multiple U.S. attendance benchmarks: it established a new U.S. arena record for a women’s hockey game by topping the 15,359 for an NCAA game between the University of Wisconsin and visiting St. Cloud State on Jan. 14, 2017, surpassed the U.S. record for a professional women’s hockey game of 14,288 (Mar. 16, 2025, at the PWHL Takeover Tour in Detroit), topped the previous Climate Pledge Arena record for a women’s hockey game of 14,551 fans for the 2022 Rivalry Series, and became the highest-attended primary home venue game in PWHL history.

Seattle becomes the second team in PWHL history to suffer a shutout loss in their inaugural home opener following Toronto’s 4-0 loss to New York in the first-ever PWHL game on Jan. 1, 2024.

Minnesota is now a perfect 3-0-0-0 in opposing team home openers after also beating Boston at the Tsongas Center in each of the league’s first two seasons.

Nicole Hensley recorded her third career shutout, with today’s 30 saves exceeding the 20 (Mar. 13, 2024) and 24 (Apr. 30, 2025) required in her first two. This marks her fifth game with 30 or more saves in her career, with all five leading to Frost wins.

The Frost’s top line of Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, and Britta Curl-Salemme delivered the team’s first three goals of the season and have accounted for 16 shots in two games.

Pannek found the back of the net twice in her second game of the season after recording an assist in the opener. The only other two-goal performance of her PWHL career was when she scored her first two goals of the 2024-25 campaign in her fourth game on Dec. 19, 2024.

Curl-Salemme recorded a two-assist performance for the first time in her PWHL career after contributing one assist in the season opener. Her 2024-25 rookie campaign featured three multi-point performances.

Coyne Schofield recorded an assist today after scoring the team’s first goal in the season opener. The Frost captain now has four points (3G, 1A) in four straight regular-season games dating back to the end of the 2024-25 campaign.

Grace Zumwinkle scored Minnesota’s first power play goal of the season after producing two of her four goals with the player advantage during the 2024-25 campaign.

Abby Hustler recorded her first career PWHL point in her second career game. The league’s first-ever player from the province of Prince Edward Island was a second-round pick of the Frost in 2025.

The Torrent forward line of Alex Carpenter, Julia Gosling, and Hilary Knight fired 15 shots on goal, with all three players recording a game-high five shots each. Carpenter led all players at the faceoff dot, going 19/24 (79.2%).

Two defenders selected in the 2025 PWHL Draft made their professional debuts today– one on each team. Seattle fifth-round pick Lyndie Lobdell and Minnesota sixth-round pick Brooke Becker both logged more than 12 minutes of ice time.

Aneta Tejralová was scratched from Seattle’s lineup and is listed day-to-day with a lower-body injury stemming from the team’s opening game in Vancouver.

Today’s historic pre-game featured a ceremonial puck drop by Jess Fishlock, a legendary midfielder who has been a member of the Seattle Reign since the first NWSL season in 2013.

THREE STARS

1. Kelly Pannek (MIN) 2G
2. Nicole Hensley (MIN) 30/30 SV
3. Danielle Serdachny (SEA)

UPCOMING SCHEDULES
Minnesota: Tuesday, Dec. 2 at Ottawa at 7 p.m. ET
Seattle: Wednesday, Dec. 3 vs. New York at 7 p.m. PT

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