Storylines to watch at Saturday’s Rivalry Series finale

The Americans have dominated so far through three games, outscoring the Canadians 20-6 to claim the series with straight wins. The final showdown this Saturday will be the last meeting between these two longtime rivals until the Milan Winter Olympics in February, where the stakes will be raised with medals on the line. With that in mind, here are five storylines to watch heading into the final game of this Rivalry Series this weekend.

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How will the Canadians respond?

Team Canada has been uncharacteristically sloppy defensively through three games, while failing to generate much offensively, culminating in a historic 10-4 loss on Wednesday. In the 2022 and 2023 editions, the Canadians lost the first three matches, only to rebound and win four in a row to win the series. But now, the competition has been shortened to four games instead of seven. Given that, what kind of Canadian team will we see take to the ice on Saturday? Coach Troy Ryan now has to decide if he wants to make a lot of adjustments, or just ride things out.

Will the Americans get the sweep?

On the opposite side of the ice, Team USA is hungry to sweep this series and earn a sixth-consecutive win over the Canadians for the first time in a decade. Their winning streak traces back to the 2025 World Championships, which the US won, and they’ll look to carry that momentum into the Winter Olympics, searching for their first Gold since 2018 after settling for silver in 2022.

Can Abbey Murphy be stopped?

Through three games, 23-year-old Illinois native Abbey Murphy leads all skaters with an impressive five goals and eight points. She has been absolutely on fire through this series, dancing through Canada’s defense and tormenting its goaltenders. All eyes will be on her Saturday as a final preview of what she can bring to this team at the upcoming Olympic Games. Currently playing at University of Minnesota, she is projected to go first overall at the 2026 PWHL Draft, and has surely helped bolster that reputation through this series.

What do these games really tell us?

If there’s one thing the long-standing Canada-US rivalry has shown, it’s that momentum can switch on a dime between these two teams. Prior to Wednesday, the biggest defeat the Canadians had ever suffered was a 9-2 loss to the Americans in the preliminary round of the 2012 World Championships. One week later, Canada beat the US in overtime in the gold medal match. Conversely, Canada lost the World Championships in 2023 and 2025, despite having won the Rivalry Series those two years. The Americans have been dominant this series, but past results show that nearly every meeting between these two teams is a fresh slate, and anyone’s for the taking.

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PWHL expansion to Edmonton? Not so fast

It seems a given at this point that the PWHL will be expanding again this summer — it’s now a question of whether they add two or four more teams. As the league explores Canadian markets, Edmonton is surely on the list, set to host two Takeover Tour games this season (Minnesota vs. Vancouver on Dec. 27 and Boston vs. Vancouver on April 7). However, attendance was not great on Wednesday for the first of two Rivalry Series games at Rogers Place. No official number was reported, but it looked to only be a few thousand. If the city is keen on getting a team, they’ll need to show up in bigger numbers on Saturday, or it may come down to what kind of attendance and attention their Takeover Tour stops attract.

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