Vancouver Goldeneyes beat Seattle Torrent in OT as PWHL expansion teams make debut

A sold-out crowd of nearly 15,000 fans got what they paid to see on Friday night: a Vancouver Goldeneyes win in the team’s first franchise game.

Inside a loud Pacific Coliseum, forward Abby Boreen was Vancouver’s overtime hero to earn a 4-3 win over the Seattle Torrent.

It was game one in what’s sure to be a long and bitter rivalry between the two west coast teams, which were built from an expansion draft process earlier this year.

Goldeneyes edge Torrent with Boreen's OT winner in record-breaking PWHL debut for both teams

While Boreen was the overtime hero, alternate captain Sarah Nurse will go down in history as scoring the Vancouver team’s first franchise goal. That goal came with fewer than three minutes left in the first period, drawing massive cheers from the Coliseum crowd.

Her former Toronto Sceptres teammate, Julia Gosling, scored two goals in the loss, including Seattle’s first franchise goal. Both found their way to the west coast after the Sceptres left them unprotected at the end of last season.

Vancouver goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer made 18 saves in the win. On the other side of the ice, Seattle Torrent goalie Corinne Schroeder made 20 saves.

Goldeneyes' Sarah Nurse scores 1st goal in franchise's history

It was a night of new beginnings for women’s hockey in Vancouver, where the sold-out crowd set a new PWHL attendance record for a team’s home arena.

A brand new video board hung from the Coliseum’s wooden rafters, above the Goldeneyes’ logo painted at centre ice. Vancouver is the first PWHL team to be the anchor tenant of an arena.

A few hours before the game began, the Goldeneyes introduced defender Ashton Bell as the team’s first captain, along with Nurse and Claire Thompson as alternates. Like Nurse,