PWHLA sold-out crowd of nearly 15,000 fans got what they paid to see on Friday night: a Vancouver Goldeneyes win in the team’s first franchise game.Abby Boreen scores winner in front of record-breaking crowd of nearly 15,000 fansKarissa Donkin · CBC Sports · Posted: Nov 21, 2025 6:09 PM EST | Last Updated: 18 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 5 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Vancouver Goldeneyes’ Abby Boreen (22) celebrates her goal against the Seattle Torrent during overtime PWHL hockey action in Vancouver, on Friday. (Ethan Cairns/The Canadian Press)A sold-out crowd of nearly 15,000 fans got what they paid to see on Friday night: a Vancouver Goldeneyes win in the team’s first franchise game.Inside a loud Pacific Coliseum, forward Abby Boreen was Vancouver’s overtime hero to earn a 4-3 win over the Seattle Torrent.It was game one in what’s sure to be a long and bitter rivalry between the two west coast teams, which were built from an expansion draft process earlier this year.WATCH | Boreen scores historic OT winner:Goldeneyes edge Torrent with Boreen’s OT winner in record-breaking PWHL debut for both teamsAbby Boreen’s overtime goal lifts the Vancouver Goldeneyes to a 4-3 win over the Seattle Torrent in both teams’ first game in the PWHL. The sold-out crowd of 14,958 at Pacific Coliseum sets a new attendance record in a PWHL team’s home arena.While Boreen was the overtime hero, alternate captain Sarah Nurse will go down in history as scoring the Vancouver team’s first franchise goal. That goal came with fewer than three minutes left in the first period, drawing massive cheers from the Coliseum crowd.Her former Toronto Sceptres teammate, Julia Gosling, scored two goals in the loss, including Seattle’s first franchise goal. Both found their way to the west coast after the Sceptres left them unprotected at the end of last season.Vancouver goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer made 18 saves in the win. On the other side of the ice, Seattle Torrent goalie Corinne Schroeder made 20 saves.WATCH | Nurse scores 1st goal in Goldeneyes history:Goldeneyes’ Sarah Nurse scores 1st goal in franchise’s historyVancouver Goldeneyes forward Sarah Nurse scores the franchise’s first goal against Seattle Torrent goaltender Corinne Schroeder at 17:41 of the first period. The past and presentIt was a night of new beginnings for women’s hockey in Vancouver, where 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 the game began, the Goldeneyes introduced defender Ashton Bell as the team’s first captain, along with Nurse and Claire Thompson as alternates. Like Nurse, Thompson also had a big moment on Friday, scoring the goal that forced overtime, with less than three minutes to play in regulation.But as much as the focus was on the future of women’s pro hockey in B.C., 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 played 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.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.”Vancouver leads the league in season ticket salesSeattle 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. The lines to buy merch snaked long through the concourse before the game began, 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. Lots of fans across the Coliseum were wearing blue Vancouver jerseys, which only went on sale a month ago.The team also sits first in the league in season ticket sales, according to Scheer.As it all came to life on Friday night, Scheer watched the younger and older faces throughout the arena, taking it all in.“It’s just a place full of joy,” she said.
Vancouver Goldeneyes beat Seattle Torrent in OT as PWHL expansion teams make debut
