In battle between the PWHL’s most and least multinational teams, diversity comes out on top, and it's a feature Ottawa's roster finds strength in.

“I think our superpower will be our diversity,” Canadian Emily Clark, PWHL Ottawa’s alternate captain, told reporters before the beginning of the season. “We have so many nations represented, players from all over the world, and I think we're bringing the best out of all of our games to make our own Ottawa identity and I think that's really special.”

Two games in, this prediction is looking more and more prescient.

Because January 9’s game against Boston was postponed, Ottawa has only played the other Canadian teams in the original six – both absolutely stacked with Canadians (Montreal with 20 and Toronto with a whopping 24 out of 26). In contrast, Ottawa has 14 Canadians on its roster – 10 of whom dressed for these games – along with seven Americans, two Czechs, one Japanese, one Hungarian, and one German.

In Ottawa’s overtime loss against Montreal, goals were scored by American Hayley Scamurra and Czech Katerina Mrázová, while Canadians Zoe Boyd (1), Lexie Adzija (1), and Ashton Bell (2) are credited for all of Ottawa’s assists going into game two of their season.

The first period of this game followed a similar pattern: Mrázova got her second of the year on a 5-on-3 powerplay, followed by Minnesota’s Gabbie Hughes on the regular player advantage.

Americans had the primary helpers for both goals, while the secondary assists were accorded to Canadians.

Daryl Watts became the first Canadian to score a goal for Ottawa, driving the net from centre ice in her hometown with 15 seconds left in the first; she was assisted by Boyd and Bell, making it the first – and still only – single-nationality score line in PWHL Ottawa’s short history.

The second period saw the first ever goalie assist in PWHL history, sent straight up from Canadian Emerance Maschmeyer to – you guessed it – her American teammate Natalie Snodgrass. The third period saw Hughes score again with a Mikyla Grant-Mentis assist, with fellow American Savannah Harmon getting the secondary nod.

This trend is almost by design: every one of Ottawa’s projected forward lines included players from at least two countries. Captain Brianne Jenner is joined on the top line by Americans Scamurra and Becca Gilmore, while the second line is composed of her countrywomen Clark and Grant-Mentis along with Hughes. 

The bottom six even more diverse, with each line representing three nationalities.

“I think everyone’s bringing something else to the line,” said Mrázová, who centres the ostensible third line of Watts and Japan’s Akane Shiga. “Daryl is really good with the skating, reading the play. Akane [has] a really good shot, can read the play really well too and me in the middle kind of supporting everyone, kind of [feeding] them.”

This diversity also extends into special teams. The first powerplay unit over the boards was composed of the Mrázová line plus Adzija as the fourth forward and American Jincy Roese on defense. The Clark line went on as the second unit, accompanied by American defensive partners Harmon and Amanda Boulier.

After Clark was sent to the box for tripping in the middle of the first period, Jenner and her linemate Scamurra penalty killed all two minutes alongside Roese and her regular Czech defensive partner Tejralová. That same group started the kill for Adzija’s penalty in the second period, but a total of 14 players mixed and matched to play for at least a shift of it.

The second unit was Ottawa’s only all-American special team of Clark, Hughes, Harmon, and Boulier. Jenner and Scamurra got another look on the PK afterward, this time joined by the Canadian defense duo of Boyd and Bell. Gilmore and Mrázová followed alongside Roese and Tejralová, the latter of whom were joined Fanni Gasparics and Snodgrass to close out the period.

“Diversity in the world is the best part of being on the planet,” head coach Carla MacLeod told reporters after the game. “Anytime you’re in a group and there’s diversity, you’re going to get different voices, different lenses to things… different playing styles a little bit depending where the girls are from.”

“It’s so much fun,” added Maschmeyer. “There are relationships forming every single day because a lot of the players on the team haven’t played with one another before so that’s really exciting. We get to create our own new identity; we don’t have a predetermined identity.”

Saturday's win puts Ottawa third in the standings, behind Montreal and undefeated Minnesota with a game in hand. The team is second in points percentage.