(Jason Cooke photo) “The Tsongas Center will host PWHL playoff games this spring.”
Jason Cooke
Connector Editor
The national hockey spotlight will once again shine bright on Lowell.
Playoff hockey is set to return to the Tsongas Center this spring in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
The league-leading Boston Fleet became the first team in the eight-team league to clinch the postseason and the fastest franchise to ever punch its playoff ticket as six games remain in the regular season.
Boston’s resurgence comes after the Fleet missed the postseason a year ago, coming up just one point short in a devastating loss on home ice that would signify a turning point for the organization as the final game for head coach Courtney Kessel and team captain Hilary Knight.
A season prior, the fifth and final game of the Walter Cup Finals put Lowell on a national pedestal when it battled the Minnesota Frost in front of a capacity crowd at the Tsongas in what was perhaps one of the biggest events to be hosted at the venue in recent memory.
Tickets for the first round are currently on sale. And if the Fleet keep up its momentum as of late as a stingy defense-first team with the best goalie in the league, the Walter Cup Finals could very well return to Lowell by May.
Boston clinched its spot in the postseason with a 4-2 win over the two-time defending champion Frost last week and will hit the road against the Vancouver Goldeneyes on Tuesday before returning home on April 11 for a sold-out game at TD Garden in Boston against the Montreal Victoire.
“Coach Sparre spoke at the start of the year in our training camp that we had something to prove,” said Fleet assistant coach Stefanie McKeough. “I think that’s the mentality that we come into every building with and address every game with. From top down in our lineup tonight, we showed that we wanted to do that here in Minnesota and it was a pretty complete game for us. We want to keep rolling; we know that the job’s not done.”
Boston has allowed only two games amid its four-game winning streak after posting a historic three-straight shutouts with Aerin Frankel in net. Amanda Thiele debuted between the pipes in the win over Minnesota.
Frankel hasn’t allowed a goal in an eye-popping 191:01 of play. Her seven shutouts this season are more than any other goalie in the league has not only posted in 2025-26 but in their career. Impressive, to say the least.
In front of her, star defenders Megan Keller and Haley Winn have been two-way dynamos. Both lead the team in time on ice and play a responsible game.
