Torrent Beat Sceptres 3-2 with Help from Olympians Carpenter, Bilka as Schroeder Returns to Form
HAMILTON, Ontario — The day before the Seattle Torrent took the ice in their neutral site game against the fourth-place Toronto Sceptres on Saturday, Jan. 3, forward Hannah Bilka got the call-up of a lifetime. It wasn’t wholly unexpected; Bilka had played in three straight IIHF Women’s World Championships for Team USA between 2022 and 2024. But still, getting the nod to play on the US women’s team in the 2026 Winter Olympics was one of the highest possible honors in Bilka’s career.
The Torrent, the Sceptres, and 16,012 spectators at TD Coliseum got a good reminder why on Saturday afternoon. Both teams had played to a standstill through two periods, with Seattle forward Lexie Adzija drawing first blood about a quarter of the way through the first period and Sceptres forward Natalie Spooner neutralizing Seattle’s lead with a goal of her own less than a minute into the second.
With 16:34 left in the third period, Seattle got themselves a power play, and although it took them about a minute and a half to get going, they began a salvo on the house - but the Sceptres held firm, keeping Seattle from point-blank range and skaters like defender Ella Shelton blocking some of the long-range shots before they could reach Toronto goalie Raygan Kirk. Momentum swung hard the other way with about 11 minutes left in the period, as the Sceptres roared down the ice and rattled off three shots in 11 seconds. Seattle stayed that drive, but a new line came on towards the end of the minute, broke into the house, and flew one past Corinne Schroeder for a go-ahead goal.
The quickness of hockey - and particularly, of fellow Olympian Torrent Alex Carpenter, set to return to the Games after her silver with the USA in 2022 - produced Seattle’s game-tying shot. With 4:22 left in the third, Seattle forward Julia Gosling sent a quick shot to the net while skating towards the boards. Kirk had to move forward to make the save, and although the puck caromed too quick off her for Hilary Knight to knock it in, Carpenter was right behind her and slapped the puck into the open window.
Seattle nearly doubled up a couple minutes later on a Natalie Snodgrass breakaway, but as she shanked her attempted point-blank shot, the game went to overtime. The Torrent had much of the puck in those five minutes, with Bilka firing two point-blank shots, but Kirk held her own and forced a shootout.
That was when the Torrent finally blew past Toronto - and when the upcoming Olympian had her moment. Bilka approached from the left, faked left, and then punched it through the five-hole. Anna Wilgren’s goal in round two was similarly clever, as she flew across the front of the net from right to left but shifted the puck from left to right, drawing Kirk out of the shooting line and doubling Seattle’s shootout lead.
“She’s practicing it at the end of practice all the time,” Gosling said about Wilgren’s shootout move. “She’s got some good hands, so we were pumped for that goal.”
Schroeder made sure that one was enough, blocking four separate Sceptres to secure the overtime win and bring Seattle’s record to 3-1-1-3. It was Schroeder’s first win with the Torrent, and her 27 saves against 29 shots in regulation improved her save percentage to .899 on the year - though she still has a ways to go to bring her performance on par with previous years. Gosling expressed confidence in Schroeder as well as happiness for her first Seattle win, capped off with four saves in the shootout.
“Tonight, [Schroeder] was definitely super focused, really dialed in,” Gosling said. “She was great in the shootout, that was huge for us.”
With 12 points in the standings, the Torrent are fifth in the PWHL, but have 22 games left compared to Toronto’s 20 games remaining.
