PWHL Takeover Tour ready to drop puck in Seattle

Of all the places Hilary Knight has played competitive hockey — from Beijing to Utica, New York — during her 17 U.S. national team seasons, the Boston Fleet captain holds a soft spot for Seattle, not far from her home in Sun Valley, Idaho.

Two years have passed, but the four-time Olympian still excitedly reflects on the electric atmosphere a U.S.-Canada Rivalry Series record-crowd of 14,551 created inside the Seattle Kraken’s home arena.

“To be honest, I have yet to experience another crowd like that,” Knight said of playing in Climate Pledge Arena, where she scored twice and added an assist in a 4-2 win. “Seattle holds a special place in my mind, and that’s why I’m super excited to be able to share that experience with other teammates, whether it’s on the Fleet or on the Montreal team.”

Knight makes her return to the Pacific Northwest on Sunday, when Boston faces the Montreal Victoire to kick off the PWHL’s expanded series of neutral-site games. Dubbed “The Takeover Tour,” the Seattle stop is the first of nine out-of-market outings the PWHL will play in places including Raleigh, North Carolina, St. Louis and Vancouver, British Columbia.

The series serves two major purposes for the six-team league a month into its second season: Aside from broadening the sport’s reach across North America, the tour allows the PWHL to test markets as it considers expanding by as many as two franchises next season.

“I think any opportunity to have an outreach of currently out-of-market games for us is a critical one for the growth of the game and also our league,” Knight said of a league whose westernmost team is in Minnesota.

“Would I love to see teams out west? Absolutely. I think it’s a prime hockey market,” added Knight. “So there’s really no sky or ceiling to where this league can go.”

Rounding out the list of neutral sites are Denver, Detroit, Buffalo, New York, and the Canadian cities Edmonton and Quebec City. Detroit is already considered a front-runner for expansion and the only repeat city on the schedule after drawing 13,736 fans for one of two neutral-site games last year; Pittsburgh was the other.

Minnesota goalie Nicole Hensley looks forward to her Denver homecoming on Jan. 12, when the Frost play Montreal at the Avalanche’s Ball Arena.

“I think the last time I (played in Denver) was in high school,” Hensley said.

“Yeah, it was a pretty small rink, so this will be little different,” Hensley added, noting she attended many Avalanche games. “I’m not going to lie, I’ve been looking forward to it for a while.”

Current players aren’t the only ones awaiting tour stops.

Cammi Granato, who captained the United States to win gold at the first Winter Games to feature women’s hockey in Nagano in 1998, considers the tour yet another a breakthrough for her sport, with Montreal playing Toronto in her adopted hometown of Vancouver on Jan. 8.

“It’s something I never thought could be possible,” Granato wrote in a text to The Associated Press.

“When I was growing up, I had the same dream as my brothers to play in the NHL. As I got older, it was hard to accept that I didn’t have the same opportunities to play professional hockey,” added Granato, now an assistant GM with the NHL’s Canucks. “It is incredible to see that it can be a dream come true for this generation of players.”

Montreal rookie Jennifer Gardiner is from suburban Vancouver and felt isolated from women’s hockey because much of it was being played in the east. She’s excited to hear the Victoire’s game against Toronto has already sold out with the region’s youth girls’ hockey associations suspending play that day in order to attend.

“It goes to show how important it is to continue to expand this league and get these games all over North America because people want to watch,” said Gardiner, who played at Ohio State. “I haven’t stopped smiling since I heard about these games out west.”

The Kraken privately campaigned to land one of the PWHL’s inaugural franchises a year ago. Seattle’s staff includes assistant GM Alexandra Mandrycky and it is the NHL’s first team to hire a full-time women’s assistant coach in Jessica Campbell.

“We are committed to growing the game of hockey for both boys and girls in the Pacific Northwest. It’s inspiring for young women in our region to witness female success in hockey on and off the ice,” Kraken GM Ron Francis said. “This is an exciting moment for our community and an important step forward for women’s hockey.”

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