Here's a look at The Hockey News' PWHL Power Rankings for the week ending February 25, 2024.

The PWHL has officially crossed the midway point in the inaugural 2024 season. Teams are learning the hard way the importance of playing a full 60 minutes in the 3-2-1 point system, as 13 of the 37 games played this season have gone to overtime or a shootout and 22 games have been decided by a single goal. 

Still, teams like Montreal, and now Toronto, continue to rise to the top each week, while Ottawa and New York have started to show signs that they might begin losing ground in the standings without a hot run.

Here's a look at The Hockey News' PWHL Power Rankings for the week ending February 25, 2024.

1. Montreal (Last Week: 2)

Montreal is close to having it all, grabbing a pair of wins, and falling in a shootout this week. There's a lot to love about the play of Montreal's top forwards, with Tereza Vanisova becoming a premier star in the league alongside Marie-Philip Poulin. If you'd told anyone at the start of the league that a legitimate goaltending controversy may exist at the midway point in the season in Montreal where Elaine Chuli is currently outplaying Ann-Renee Desbiens, you may have received some funny looks. Today, however, it's a great problem to have for Montreal. What they need right now is to find a way to activate their depth to contribute, and without Dominika Laskova, who remains on crutches, they need to take a long look at options on the blueline across the league.

2. Toronto (Last Week: 1)

Their lone performance this week was a 2-1 shootout win over New York, which looked like a shutout regulation win until Ella Shelton scored with eight seconds left to tie the game. Toronto's main weakness is defensive depth, as they're currently playing Jocelyne Larocque and Renata Fast into the ice. On that final goal, New York found themselves twice in the final minutes uncovered net front on Kristen Campbell. They were lapses Toronto can't afford. With Natalie Spooner accounting for more than 35% of Toronto's goals at the midway point in the season, Toronto needs to find scoring not just from their depth, but also in their top six aside from Spooner. The good news for Toronto, is that Kristen Campbell has turned her year around in a good way.

3. Boston (Last Week: 4)

Sure, they lost to Ottawa to open the week, but the response from Boston following that game was stellar. They bounced back with a pair of hard fought wins over Ottawa and Minnesota, despite arguably being outplayed in both. Susanna Tapani really looks to be hitting her stride in Boston, and she could turn out to be the player who turns their offense around. After moments where she looked beatable earlier this year, Aerin Frankel put in her best showing of the year for Boston in a 41-save shutout over Minnesota. That bodes well for Boston.

4. Minnesota (Last Week: 3)

There's no Taylor Heise in Minnesota, and it looks like that could be longer term. Minnesota was also without Liz Schepers due to injury this week. After the Tapani trade, losing two key forwards has been difficult for Minnesota to handle. They put a ton of pucks on net against Boston, but they didn't go in. Kendall Coyne Schofield continues to get better, and she went toe to toe with Jamie Lee Rattray with an intensity that should have been enough to light a fire under her team. Someone needs to step up from within in Minnesota.

5. New York (Last Week: 5)

Minnesota has been to five straight overtime or shootouts, including two this week, splitting their shootouts against Toronto and Montreal. They haven't been able to generate a lot of offense lately, which includes zero goals from Jessie Eldridge in over a month. New York has been giving the opportunities to rookies Chloe Aurard and Paeytn Levis, but neither have scored this season through 12 games. They can hope that Abby Roque's omission from the USA national team will be a wake up call on a number of fronts for the forward. Jill Saulnier returned this week, but hasn't found her groove. Overall, New York looked better this week, but in best-on-best, teams need to find a way to be better than best night in and night out.

6. Ottawa (Last Week: 6)

There's just something missing to the mix. Couple that with continued bad luck, and Ottawa's struggles have felt more pronounced of late. If Emily Clark, Brianne Jenner, and Daryl Watts can start producing consistently, this team has a chance. The problem is, there's nothing consistent about Ottawa. All of the pre-described 'stars' are sitting with some serious minuses in terms of possession and plus/minus. Emerance Machmeyer's last two starts weren't good, so either Ottawa needs to give Sandra Abstreiter a shot, or they need to trade for someone who they trust enough to play minutes. On the blueline, Jincy Roese is last in the league at a -10, but there are mistakes happening on the blueline more than this team can withstand nearly across the board. One bright spot has been the play of Amanda Boulier, who is punching far beyond her weight class as a defender who is turning heads nightly.