PHF on TSN January 15th, 2022
1/15/22 PHF
by Chris Morris
Buffalo Beauts at Toronto Six
*shown live on TSN in Canada, a huge broadcast as (I believe) this is the 1st time ever the PHF has been broadcast on the main cable system in Canada…and I wouldn’t have known about it without Anya Parker’s Tweet last night…I would have assumed it was on Twitch or TSN Direct (which shows us in Canada ESPN+ content, but it’s a pain in the butt to access)
*my pre-game notes:
- Toronto has eight players going to the All-Star Game (I assume they will send another representative to replace Michela Cava, who they announced yesterday will be returning to Russia “due to contractual obligations”)
- Buffalo has eight players going to the All-Star game as well, four of those being write-in ballots from the fans…in fact they were the only team to have any write-in votes, so they apparently have a very passionate fan base…impressive since they are in last place, also makes me feel bad for the Metropolitan Riveters who only have two players in the game (Madison Packer and Rebecca Russo)…
- another interesting side story; the aforementioned All Star Game was supposed to be held in Toronto, but due to current COVID guidelines, it’s been moved to Buffalo…
*side note: would TSN been more likely to broadcast the PHF All-Star Game if it had taken place in Toronto? Will it broadcast the All-Star game either way? Or at all? I hope so…
- Mikyla Grant-Mentis of Toronto is the league MVP right now and it’s always fun seeing her play…
- Carly Jackson of Buffalo is one of the best goalies in the league, and has a great mullet so her vs. Grant-Mentis should be a fun match up
*Toronto is 7-1-1 (best in PHF)
*Buffalo is 1-4-0 (worst in PHF)
*game is taking place in York, Ontario…
*announcers talk about Emilie Harley for Buffalo, who I haven’t heard of before this…
*Elaine Chuli, goalie for Toronto, is hard to beat…
Commentators are Josh Tolle and Alexis Pearson
#PHFonESPN but no #PHFonTSN
*Keys to the Game:
Buffalo - Limit shots
Toronto - Holiday Hangover
*broadcast has a clock counting down, well two of them, as they also have a clock counting down the power play with is a big improvement over the Twitch broadcasts
*Buffalo gets an early power play but can’t score despite Cassidy Vinkle’s best efforts
*as soon as the penalty is over, Toronto Six go on the attack and soon, Leah Marino scores to make it 1-0 Toronto…
*they put Marino’s name on screen, and that it was her 2nd goal of the season; again a big improvement from Twitch
*I really don’t like the player’s names being on the bottom of the jerseys, under the numbers, as I’m trying to figure out who the players are and doing that just makes it harder…
*Saroya Tinker of Toronto gets a penalty…read an article on “Ice Garden” that said she was an “All-Star Snub”…
*Toronto have a hard time getting the puck out of their zone during the penalty kill, Autumn MacDougall does a good job on the power play but Buffalo can’t score…
*they briefly cut to a camera positioned behind the goalie which was nice, seeing a different angle, but it was only a few seconds…
*and just like the first time the penalty was killed, Toronto scores, with Mikyla Grant-Mentis blasting down the ice, out skating the defense and scoring on a breakaway…amazing speed!
*2-0 Toronto
*Grant-Mentis’ 6th goal of the season
*announcers talking about the PHF website, which just reminded me I have never actually gone to the site…I’ve pretty much relied on the Ice Garden for all my PHF news
www.premierhockeyfederation.com
*some back and forth action, Buffalo can’t bury the puck past Chuli
*Toronto scores again
*3-0 Toronto
*Amy Curlew’s 1st goal of the season
*announcer talks about Curlew being part of the Six’s 3rd line…who else is on the 3rd line though?
*great improvement on graphics but I’d like to see a graphic showing the lines for each team, defensive pairings and also I’d like to know how many shots each team has had as well…
*all teams in the PHF do a great job on social media, Instagram in particular, where these two teams post their game day lineups, but should I have to go there to find out?
*Toronto goes on the power play late in the period, already up 3-0…
*Toronto has a crisp power play with great passing…but can’t score…
*1st period intermission…the game would be a lot closer if not for Toronto goalie Chuli…but it would also be worse of not for Carly Jackson…
*I’m reading on the PHF website that Emma Vlasic of Connecticut has been added to the All Star Team to replace Michela Cava, so I guess now Toronto only has 7 representatives?
*Connecticut Whale now have eight representatives at the All-Star Game…
*News and Notes during the intermission:
- All Star Showcase moved to Buffalo (Buffalo was spelled wrong on the graphic…just saying…)
- Warrior and PHF announce multi-year equipment agreement beginning in the 2022-2023 season
- Upper Deck producing PHF trading cards in 2022-2023
- Elaine Chuli named December PHF Player of the month (4-0, 0.50 GAA, .979 SV%, 2 shutouts)
*a nice video of Buffalo players Anjelica Diffendal and Emilie Harley having fun in the snow…
*Toronto’s Leah Marino interviewed just before the 2nd period starts…
*2nd period…
*Going over the hi lights of the 1st period, the graphic shows the logos for Toronto Six and Boston Pride…
*about four minutes into the period, Beauts miss out on a huge chance to score on an empty net but Chuli keeps it out…
*and, this seems to be happening a lot this game, Beauts miss a chance and the Six go down the ice and score themselves…
*Toronto 4-0
*Stephanie Sucharda’s 1st goal
*Carly Jackson gets pulled! Oh that sucks…
*backup goalie Lovisa Berntsson from Sweden (only her 2nd appearance) goes into the net for the Beauts to try to salvage something here…
*after the goalie swap, Buffalo seems energized, gets a few great chances, lead by Emilie Harley, but still can’t get one past Chuli
*things settle down and the Six are more aggressive, but Berntsson keeps the puck out…
*the announcers talking about Taylor Accursi playing her first game for the Toronto Six wearing #22…isn’t she a Beaut? In fact, isn’t the the Beauts’ leading scorer? I’m confused…or am I hearing him say “Marcuzzi” for Natalie Marcuzzi?
*end of 2nd period, it’s 4-0 Toronto
*2nd Intermission they have a cool video of the All-Star Draft…the three captains did a draft and picked their teams which is pretty cool, I didn’t know they did this…as opposed to the NHL where the front office picks the teams…cool…
*okay I misunderstood…the players were picked by the PHF but the three captains then picked their teams out of that group…still a cool idea…
*interview with Six’s Amy Curlew
*looked up an interview with Taylor Accursi from November on “Ice Garden”, she says it was possible she might have signed with Toronto Six as where she lives, Toronto is a 30-minute drive as opposed to a 90-minute drive to where the Beauts play, but she “bleed Beauts blue”…
*okay announcer guy just said Natalie Marcuzzi is making her debut with the Six today so I guess I just heard wrong?
*wait is Taylor Accursi even playing?
*Toronto scores again 5-0
*Taylor Day’s 2nd goal of the season
*Buffalo scores! 5-1
*Cassidy MacPherson’s 1st goal of the season
*Buffalo seems energized again despite being down 4 goals…
*#95 Taylor Accursi, just saw her set up a play in front of the Six goal, so yes she is playing…
*lots of chances for Buffalo but they can’t score…this is a great game except for the lopsided score…
*Toronto scores again, 6-1
*Leah Marino scores again today, her 3rd this season
*aaaannnddd it’s over…final score 6-1 Toronto
*not a whole lot to that 3rd period other than my self-inflicted Taylor Accursi drama…
*these two play again tomorrow which is interesting scheduling for the PHF, every weekend having a two game series between team…I guess to save on money spent travelling?
*so this is a major improvement over the PHF games I’ve seen on Twitch, I’m thinking this wasn’t planned out well in advance as the announcers never mentioned that the game was being shown across Canada on TSN, I’d think that would have been a big deal as opposed to just appearing on streaming…
*TSN seems to be investing more time into non-NHL hockey so hopefully this leads to more games being shown in the future…for those who don’t know, Sportsnet in Canada has the NHL package, TSN does show NHL games but it’s regional coverage only, so as far as I’m concerned (a resident of BC) I never watch the NHL on TSN and only on Sporstnet…they just started showing OHL and WHL games, but of the three options here, I’d much prefer seeing more of the PHF…lately, they have been bragging about being “the home of NLL” (lacrosse) so why not the PHF?
Anyhow, great stuff…what’s important now is the follow up from this…is this just a one-time aberration? Will they show highlights of this on tonight’s Sportscentre (with an “re” of course)? We will have to wait and see?
*Update: Yes, they did indeed show game highlights on tonight’s Sportscentre, at the very end of the show they focused on Grant-Mentis’ breakaway goal and Elaine Chuli’s amazing save…so that’s hopefully a step forward…luckily for the PHF they have expanded to Toronto, as, for those who don’t know, Toronto is considered “the centre of the universe” for people in Toronto (as a person who lives in BC I’m not bitter at all, really) and that’s where nearly 100% of the media in Canada is based, so having a team there and the best player in the league on that team is pretty essential to the PHF getting coverage in Canada.