PWHL Players of the Week: Frankel, Jenner and Roque star in second week
After each team played just one game to start the first week of the 2025-26 PWHL season, the second week saw the first eight-team campaign hit full swing, and some teams have already completed three games.
Ben Steiner here this week on the Daily Faceoff rotation of PWHL writers, as we rotate between myself, Hunter Crowther and Tyler Kuehl for coverage this season.
Hunter highlighted last week’s players, and each of us was made to look foolish based on a one-week sample size in our first power rankings of the season.
With Week 2 in the books, here were our three stars.
Aerin Frankel (G, Boston Fleet)
The Boston Fleet are off to the perfect start to the season with two wins in as many games, and goaltender Aerin Frankel is a key reason for their success. After stopping 25 shots for an opening week shutout win against the Montréal Victoire, the American netminder stood out again with 24 saves on 25 shots in a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Sceptres.
While the Sceptres were still adjusting to life without a transitional driver like Sarah Nurse in their lineup, they still created several key chances and took 17 shots of their 25 from the slot, 14 of which were below the top of the faceoff circles.
These weren’t easy saves for Frankel, and she only allowed one in to send the Sceptres home-opener crowd home disappointed. Through two games this season, Frankel has a .980 save percentage, allowing just a single goal on 50 shots.
Brianne Jenner (F, Ottawa Charge)
Brianne Jenner had the best offensive performance of the season so far in midweek action against the Vancouver Goldeneyes as she scored twice and posted two assists for four points, handing the expansion team their first loss in franchise history.
Four points in one night tied the PWHL single-game record, and both of her goals came on special teams as well. She scored the Charge’s first goal of the season on the power play, before taking advantage of Vancouver’s less-than-settled power play for Ottawa’s first jailbreak tally of the year.
The performance came with a noted shift for Jenner as well, as it was her first game centering her own line in over a year, playing in between Anna Meixner and Rebecca Leslie.
“We’re always trying to find the right chemistry and put players in a position to be successful,” head coach Carla MacLeod said of Jenner’s performance. “She’s got such a history of playing both wing and center. It sparked from a conversation we had with her a couple of days ago. I thought it would give us a different look. Obviously, she ran with it, and her line was tremendous tonight.”
Abby Roque (F, Montréal Victoire)
Abby Roque is a Montréal Victoire fan favorite, and it barely took even a whole home game to impress the fans. After playing 19:02 in her Victoire debut against the Boston Fleet, she played 20:40 in the team’s home opener, putting up a goal and two assists in a 4-0 win against her former team, the New York Sirens.
Pure skill 🤯
Abby Roque with a between-the-legs goal! pic.twitter.com/1Zi5KubvzV
Her goal wasn’t anything ordinary, either. With the roaring crowd backing her, she charged through the neutral zone and got herself onto a breakaway before scoring a between-the-legs goal to finish one of the slickest plays in PWHL history.
“It was a really fun game,” she said after the contest, where she played primarily on the top line with Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. “Even from the starting lineup, especially for our rookies looking at me when everybody is getting announced, and they’re like ‘This is crazy’, and I was like ‘Yeah, it’s pretty cool’. So it’s really fun to be able to play in front of this market.”