The Ottawa Charge had a magic moment on the ice at Rogers Place in Edmonton ahead of their PWHL Takeover Tour game in the city.

To say that the Ottawa Charge’s practice on Saturday afternoon was special would have been an understatement. The practice saw the team skate at Rogers Place in front of hundreds of fans, friends, and family, and the cheers were just a little bit louder for Edmonton products Danielle Seradachny, Emerance Maschmeyer, and Stephanie Markowski.

For Danielle Serdachny who grew up playing youth hockey in Edmonton and being around the Oilers via her father, former Oilers skating and skills coach Steve Serdachny, to skate in a place as a pro that she revered was quite the moment. “To be in this building honestly is kind of a dream come true,” Seradchny said. “I grew up watching the Oilers cheering them on and idolizing them. So to be playing at the same rink as them is incredibly special for myself.”

Seeing fans excited not only for Sunday’s game but also for Saturday’s practice wasn’t lost on Emily Clark as she appreciated the effort fans made to be able to make Rogers Place a lively building.

“It's so fun,” Clark said. “It's something that we don’t take for granted people are taking time and energy, whether they’re traveling in just to watch us practice and play or they’re local were excited that they’re excited for us to be here.”

The vibes were high during the practice and there was good reason for that. Ottawa comes into the weekend shaking off a four-game losing streak via a dominant 8-3 win over the Minnesota Frost on Feb. 13 that saw Tereza Vanišová record a hat trick as seven Charge players recorded a multi-point game on a night that saw a new PWHL single game record for goals by one team. As Ottawa looks to get themselves into a playoff spot, the back half of the season to the team is being viewed as a fresh start.

“I think we’re looking at this next 15 games as a brand new season so it was great for us to get off to a great start as 1-0 for this second set of the season that were looking at it.” Clark said.

The ability to step up against Minnesota came as no surprise to Charge head coach Carla MacLeod as she had the utmost belief in her roster that they would find a way to cash in on their offensive zone chances.

It's just nice to see the effort that the group is putting in to be rewarded, we thought in a lot of those games, the last five games we actually played pretty well but we were just struggling to find the back of the net,” MacLeod said. “When you have the roster that we do you don’t lose sleep over it as a coaching staff, you recognize that the players in the room are so skilled and capable it's just a matter of finding the right time and finding things to click.”

While the goal at hand is to get the three points over Toronto knowing that the first PWHL game in Edmonton will be in front of over 18,000 fans isn't lost on Ottawa’s bench boss as it is something built upon the pioneers of the game as also the desire of fans to want to consume more women’s hockey.

“It's both a humbling statement and an exciting statement, I think for a really long time women’s sport, women’s hockey has always tried to elevate to the level that we always believed we could be at,” MacLeod said This league has given us a stage and a platform like no other and there’s been so many builders along the way to help us get to this point that, to have these full NHL stadiums is nothing short of incredible. The fact that people are taking time out of their day to come cheer us on is the piece that's so humbling but I think the game has shown that sports fans are ready for great sport and the PWHL is great sport.”