LOWELL, Mass. — With the end of two lengthy losing streaks on the line, PWHL Ottawa (3-0-4-3) beat PWHL Boston (2-2-2-4), 4-2, at the Tsongas Center Monday evening.
“It’s been a building period for us,” said Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod following the game. “We’ve faced quite a bit of adversity and have been working through some things, both of which have been valuable. It was incredibly nice to see our group rewarded for the work we’ve done.”
“It’s lights out and away we go!”
Ottawa started the game with their foot to the floor, launching a fast break into the attack zone off the opening draw. Ottawa’s Sammy Davis worked her way towards the paint from the wing before dropping a pass off to Hayley Scamurra. The former Northeastern Husky crashed into the crease and into Boston goalkeeper Aeirin Frankel. Frankel held strong in her paint, making the stop with her pad and freezing possession for a face-off in her own zone.
Ottawa would open the scoring on a spectacular tic-tac-toe goal set up by Daryl Watts and Brianne Jenner. Watts completed the circuit, poking the puck past a sliding Frankel to put the visitors ahead just before the halfway mark of the period.
Things would slow down in the latter half of the opening frame, with each team trading chances but generally keeping the puck in mid-ice. At the first intermission, Ottawa led Boston 1-0, outshooting the hosts 12-10.
Boston breaks the plane
The middle frame started in head-scratching fashion as Boston looked to make up ground. Loren Gabel would have to return the game to its initial state, sprinting away on a break. Zoe Boyd made a banzai attempt at the puck but ended up running into Gabel’s legs, sending the two crashing into Maschmeyer and sending the net off of its moorings.
As Gabel was falling down, however, she executed a spinning pass back to Taylor Girard who fired the puck through the space where the goal should have been. The initial call of referee, Jared Cummins was a good goal, but the crew elected to take a second look. After an extremely lengthy review, Girard’s tying goal was confirmed.
Boston would have a chance to take the lead following a boarding penalty to Ottawa’s Natalie Snodgrass. The Boston powerplay would show some teeth, but never had the opportunity to make the intended impact.
Out on good behavior
Boston would be handed two penalties in quick succession just past the midway point of the period. Emily Brown would be called for holding at 11:56. Megan Keller would follow her to the box just moments later after she drove Watts headfirst into the boards. After discussion, the officiating crew elected to just hand out a minor penalty.
While Ottawa’s brief 5-on-3 chance would come up empty, the visitors would regain the lead on the strength of a Gabbie Hughes power play goal. Savannah Harmon set up the goal by sending a stretch pass to the waiting Emily Clark. The Saskatoon native fired a shot from a low angle which rebounded off of Frankel’s pads. The puck would find the stick of Hughes who worked across the face of goal to find the angle and put the puck in the back of the net.
The Ottawa lead would not hold for long, however. Abby Cook scored her first goal as a member of PWHL Boston just 63 seconds after the Hughes tally. Firing a wrist shot from the point through heavy traffic, the former PWHL Minnesota defender brought the game back to square at 2 goals apiece.
“It was crazy,” said Cook postgame. “I actually didn’t know it went in the net until everyone started skating at me.”
The hosts would have a chance to break serve after Kateřina Mrázová was sin-binned for boarding Boston captain Hillary Knight. Gabbie Hughes, however, had other plans, potting a jailbreak goal while falling towards the net with under 12 seconds to play in the frame.
After forty minutes, Ottawa led Boston 3-2 with an identical lead in the shots department at 23-22.
Death by 1,000 paper cuts
Boston would see another high-quality chance go awry to start the third period. Hillary Knight and Jamie Lee Rattray found free ice at the attacking blue line. With no one to beat but the goalie, Knight made an uncharacteristic decision to pass the puck from in tight. Rattray was unable to pick up the pass cleanly and the puck skittered out to the high slot where it was slapped away by the big goal stick of Maschmeyer.
Things went from bad to worse for Boston when alternate captain Megan Keller went down the tunnel with an injury. While she would return to the bench a few minutes later, head coach Courtney Kessel elected to limit her minutes as time wound down.
Ottawa captain, Brianne Jenner, put the dagger through the heart of the Boston faithful, scoring from downtown on an empty net to put the game out of reach with under a minute to play.
With their 4-2 victory, Ottawa snapped a five-game losing streak while handing Boston their fourth consecutive defeat.
Postgame Proceedings
Boston head coach Courtney Kessel was incredibly blunt following her team’s fourth loss in a row on home ice.
“Something has to change,” said Kessel. “If we’re not going to play 60 minutes, we’re going to lose games. You can’t decide to show up just for the third period. The league is too good for that.”
Kessel continued in her statement that she needs to see more energy from her squad earlier in the game.
“There needs to be urgency,” she said. “You’ve gotta want it. You’ve gotta jump to the puck, win a race, win a battle. We just aren’t doing that.”
With a second date with Ottawa coming up on Wednesday night, Kessel appeared hopeful that her club might be able to get back on track.
“The less time we have to think about this game the better,” said Kessel. “Getting into another game is good. We have less time to worry about the ‘what ifs.’ I think it’ll be nice to play the same team back-to-back. We know what we’re going to get from Ottawa, we’ll just have to make the adjustments.”
Canning the controversy
PWHL Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod was in the spotlight early in the second period following the controversial tying goal scored by Taylor Girard. Somewhat surprisingly, MacLeod spoke positively about the review process and the officiating crew working the game.
“I think there’s been a lot of stability with how the rules have been applied,” said MacLeod postgame. “Part of it is just the details and knowing those rules. This was a kind of unique situation. It’s not a rule you use every day. You have to trust that the people making the calls do know the rule book inside and out and we do trust them. You have to have the conversation because it’s important that everyone is on the same page, but we weren’t losing any momentum off of that.”
PWHL Boston and PWHL Ottawa will face off again this Wednesday night at 7:00 PM (ET) at the Tsongas Center. All PWHL games can be live-streamed on YouTube.
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