Inside a historic ladies’s hockey battle and why it modified PWHL guidelines: ‘We were battling out there’ | USAEMALL.com

For almost a decade, Jill Saulnier was an energy line forward for the Canadian women’s national team, winning two Olympic medals and a world championship.

Now she can add a new line to her resume: She threw the first real punches in the history of the Professional Women’s Hockey League, in a fight with Ottawa forward Tereza Vanišová.

“We were battling out there,” Saulnier told The Athletic. “She got a hold of my stick and dropped it down, and that was just kind of the green flag for me …. I said, ‘Let’s go.’”

The Feb. 20 fight during a game between the Boston Fleet and Ottawa Charge was the first-ever in the PWHL and one of the league’s most viral moments.

Fights aren’t entirely new to women’s hockey. There was a line brawl between Canada and the United States at a pre-tournament game ahead of the 2014 Olympics, and another in the now-defunct National Women’s Hockey League in 2016.

There are usually big hits and scrums after whistles at the professional and international level. But these moments — with fists flying — have been few and far between.

For the players involved in the PWHL’s first fight, it was just a natural part of the women’s game and a product of the increased physicality allowed in the league.

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“It’s a heated game, it’s a physical game, and we’re all very competitive,” said Saulnier, now a forward for Boston after a January trade from the New York Sirens. “It’s just the way that the chips kind of fell in the corner.”

The build-up to the fight included a hit and at least two extra crosschecks by Saulnier against Vanišová, one of Ottawa’s top scoring forwards. When Vanišová got up, she threw Saulnier’s stick to the ground.

“I felt like the warranted next move was a hard right,” Saulnier said. “In the moment, it was physical and that fight had to happen. It was right there and it was a message from each side.”

Neither player dropped their gloves, as is customary in men’s hockey, given women’s players wear full cages that protect their face — not visors like most NHLers wear, which leave most of their face exposed. In both leagues, players are not allowed to remove their helmets to fight.

“You’d just look silly to fully drop the gloves,” Saulnier said, given they’d be punching a cage with their bare hands.

The nearly 6,000 fans at TD Place Arena in Ottawa were on their feet. So were the players on each bench. Five minutes after the fight, Ottawa defender Ronja Savolainen scored to make the game 2-1 late in the third period. When Vanišová got out of the penalty box, she scored with only three seconds left in the game to send it to overtime and register the first unofficial “Gordie Howe hat trick” in the league’s history — when a player scores a goal, assists on a goal and fights in the same game.

“I thought it was awesome, it got the fans going,” Saulnier said. “I’m sure I’ll get a couple boos next time I go in there, but please know, it was all respectful and it was a lot of fun.”

Ottawa ultimately lost 3-2 in overtime and Saulnier and Vanišová shared a moment in the postgame handshake line to say, “Nice fight.”

“You see the intensity of the game and that’s the fun part of this league,” said Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod after the game. “Neither player backed down and I suspect there will be a little bit of buzz about it, which is never bad for the game either.”

The fight made worldwide news with headlines in TMZ and the Daily Mail, outlets that don’t typically cover women’s hockey. And it went viral on social media while 16 million people across North America were watching Canada and the United States in the 4 Nations Face-Off finale.

In the last week, fans have given Saulnier bracelets that spell out “Fight Club” in beads and T-shirts that say “Jill Saulnier Fight Club,” which one of her family members wore to Boston’s game against Montreal at the Bell Centre on Saturday.

“I think more people reached out than when we won a gold medal,” said Saulnier, a member of the 2022 Canadian Olympic team. “Obviously you shouldn’t fight every game, but I think it was actually good because it got more eyes on the league.”

The PWHL, which only officially started in January 2024, will take the exposure. The fight was also a nice bit of proof that the league is full of skilled players who can play with finesse and speed, but also embrace physicality. Still, fights aren’t something they want to be the norm.

The league’s rulebook clearly states that “fighting is not part of the PWHL’s game.” And before last month’s altercation, there wasn’t a ton of clarity on what penalties referees might impose other than that players who fight shall be penalized and may be ejected from the game.

Saulnier and Vanišová were only given roughing minors for their fight, which led to some confusion over the rules. Last week, the league clarified that a fight will now be penalized with a 5-minute major penalty and a game misconduct, with a possibility of further discipline following a review and taking into consideration repeat offenders.

According to Saulnier, Boston general manager Danielle Marmer calls it “the Jill Saulnier rule.”

The new rules should deter players from frequently fighting. In a short, 30-game season, players might not be willing to sit out an extra game just to give their team a boost of energy post-fight. The equipment barrier will also continue to be a natural deterrent for fighting in women’s hockey.

Beyond that, fighting is far from common at other levels of the women’s game. Even bodychecking has never been permitted in youth girls hockey, which means those skills are not typically taught. In boys hockey, bodychecking is introduced at the under-14 level and by the time a player gets to the professional level, fighting has very much been part of the game.

Saulnier doesn’t think her fight is going to open the floodgates to more moments like that in the future. But, she said, it certainly won’t be the last time we see a fight in women’s professional hockey.

“With the level of physicality, you’ll never not see it in the PWHL,” she said.

(Illustration: Demetrius Robinson / The Athletic; Photos: Troy Parla / Getty Images)