By the numbers: Understanding Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel’s PWHL dominance

The PWHL is rightly celebrated for its parity, but the Boston Fleet don’t seem to have gotten the memo in 2025-26.

While the rest of the league has battled and bounced around the standings, the Fleet have dominated in impressive fashion, winning eight of their first 12 games. On Sunday, they leave the East Coast for the West, taking on the seventh-place Seattle Torrent at Climate Pledge Arena (10:00 p.m. ET/ 7:00 p.m. PT on Sportsnet/Sportsnet+) as they look to extend their five-point first-place cushion.

Leading Boston’s climb to the summit — albeit from the very back — is goaltender Aerin Frankel.

Frankel’s seven wins are the most of any goalie in the PWHL this season. And in addition to fuelling the Fleet’s fiery start, she’ll soon ignite Team USA when she makes her Olympic debut in Milan.

Of course, statisticians can’t capture the full scope of Frankel’s talent — just watch this breakaway chance she stole from Sarah Wozniewicz:  

Still, a by-the-numbers look at what she’s put up through her career offers a solid first glance at her ridiculous control in net.

5: Backstopped by Frankel, a Boston team that seemed destined for the basement following a difficult and depleting off-season, recorded a streak of five straight wins over its first five games. Without former captain and 2024-25 league points-leader Hilary Knight, the Fleet needed a new voice to set the tone. Frankel, with her poise between the pipes, became just that. In her first five games, the Chappaqua, N.Y. native surrendered just two goals while recording three shutouts.

Frankel summed up the impact of the solid start after the Fleet’s third game of the season saying, “If you like how you're playing at the beginning of the year, it's a pretty good indication of what this group is capable of. Anytime we can get a win, especially at home, is really exciting.

“We're all looking forward to keeping things rolling.”

And, nine games later, that’s exactly what they’ve done.

.948: Each year of the PWHL, Frankel’s capabilities seem to hit a new level. She’s maintained an obscene .948 save percentage so far this season, an upgrade on last year’s already-impressive .921. In 2025-26, she ranks third in this category (behind only Montreal’s Ann-Renee Desbiens and Minnesota’s Nicole Hensley) among goalies who have played six or more games. The 26-year-old boasts a higher save percentage than any first-string goalie in the NHL this season, and has also recorded a 1.25 goals against average through 11 games.

3: Frankel has surrendered just three goals over the five games the Fleet have played at home in Boston this season. Furthermore, Fleet fans have yet to see her give up more than one goal in a game at home, as each of the three hung on her have been scored in a different contest. Three is also the number of shutouts Frankel’s recorded through 11 games. That’s triple the number she managed in each of her first two years in the league, and she’s only just reached the halfway mark of the season. Frankel is tied with New York’s Kayle Osborne for the 2025-26 league lead in shutouts.

26: At just 26 years old, Frankel has become the best American-born netminder in her sport. She’s risen to such a level that there’s only one other contender for the title of best in the world. Canada’s Desbiens joins Frankel at the top of league leaderboards as the only other goalie who contends with the Boston backstop’s consistency. And as impressive as Desbiens has been for her Montreal Victoire — and for Canada internationally — she doesn’t have the same playing runway ahead of her that Frankel does. At 31-years-old, Desbiens still has many years of meaningful — and likely record-breaking — hockey to come, but the five-year age gap between the two top talents will give Frankel plenty of time to play catch-up.

2020-21: Frankel’s mastery in net stems from the foundations she built before turning pro. It was during her years at Northeastern University that Frankel fine-tuned her game. As a senior in 2020-2021, Frankel ranked first among all goalies in the NCAA with a 0.81 goals against average, boasted a .965 save percentage, a .891 goalie winning percentage, and recorded nine shutouts. Her exceptional efforts that season also earned her the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award, which is given to the top women’s college hockey player each year.

0: Frankel has never represented her country at an Olympic Games, but after just three more Fleet games, she will swap her ‘Green Monster’ garb for some red-white-and-blue and travel to Milan for her first chance on the biggest stage in the game. And although she’ll be joined by two-time Olympian Hensley, and fellow first-timer Gwyneth Philips, she’ll be the one responsible for a leadership role between the pipes as the squad’s projected starting goalie. Frankel already has plenty of international experience to draw from, though. She’s won gold at the IIHF World Championship twice (2023, 2025) and has earned silver three times (2021, 2022, 2024). Beyond that, Frankel’s been around the national team ever since 2019, when she earned her first win at the Rivalry Series.