Place Bell in Laval will be the main home for Montreal’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team for the 2024-25 season.
The club announced Wednesday that Place Bell will now be its primary home after playing six of its 12 regular-season home games in the league’s inaugural 2024 season at the Verdun Auditorium. It played four regular-season and two playoff games at Place Bell, home of the AHL’s Laval Rocket, including three sellout crowds of 10,172. The Montreal team also played one game at the Bell Centre in front of a sellout crowd of 21,105, and one game at Pittsburgh’s PPG Paints Arena.
Capacity at the Verdun Auditorium is just over 4,000. The Montreal team will continue to train and practise in Verdun.
Montreal finished in second place in the six-team league last season with a 13-6-5 record before being swept by Boston in the playoff semifinals, losing three straight overtime games in the best-of-five series.
“We are extremely pleased to be able to meet the growing demand from our fans and to give even more people the opportunity to come and cheer on our players,” Montreal general manager Danièle Sauvageau said in a statement Wednesday. “This valuable collaboration with Groupe CH will allow us to create new magical moments with our fans. We are enjoying the best of both worlds, as the team will be able to continue training daily in high-performance sports facilities.”
France Margaret Bélanger, the president of sports and entertainment for Groupe CH, said the company is “thrilled to welcome the PWHL back to Place Bell for a full season, following the immense success of its inaugural season last year. After hosting several sold-out games by the Montreal PWHL team at our facility in 2024, we saw crowds create an electrifying atmosphere, once again demonstrating the strength of our hockey market. We are thrilled that the PWHL has called Place Bell home.”
Information about season tickets for the Montreal PWHL team will be announced soon. The 2024-25 PWHL regular season will have 30 games for each team, including some that will be played in neutral arenas.