Natalie Spooner and Kristen Campbell, along with a strong penalty kill were keys to PWHL Toronto's shootout win over New York.
Natalie Spooner and Kristen Campbell, along with a strong penalty kill were keys to PWHL Toronto's shootout win over New York.
PWHL Toronto found a way in the shootout to extend their winning streak to five games with a 2-1 over New York.
The win was helped by the tremendous play of Kristen Campbell as well as two shootout goals from Natalie Spooner.
Here are my thoughts on this exciting matchup.
Campbell Continues To Be Toronto’s Wall
Kristen Campbell answered the bell once again for Toronto posting a 27-save performance in the team's win on Friday night.
Coming into the game Campbell has been everything Toronto could hope for posting a .947 save percentage and two shutouts in her last five games heading into tonight.
She continued that performance by making multiple timely saves throughout the game to keep things knotted at zeros for a Toronto team that struggled to find offence.
One of her biggest saves came at the 10:43 mark of the second period as she sprawled across the crease to rob Alex Carpenter on a one-time opportunity.
Campbell also made a beautiful save with 47 seconds left in overtime on the penalty kill when she made a point blank save in the crease on Abby Roque to send the game into the shootout.
The great performance was wrapped up with a perfect shootout where Campbell stopped all four shots she faced to secure the win.
“It’s a fun time for me, I practice shootouts so much,” said Campbell. “Over the last three years when we didn’t have many games I would do shootouts with Rebecca Johnston and (Marie-Philip) Poulin after practice. Once you have done that and taken 30 to 40 breakaways it's not too difficult to stop four or five minute shootouts.”
Toronto's Penalty Kill Thrives
Once again, Toronto found themselves in the penalty box more often than they would have liked against New York and their power play. Heading into tonight's contest, New York was second in the league in power play percentage with a 22.5% rate.
Through the four frames, Toronto took five penalties, giving New York plenty of opportunities to gain the lead on the power play.
The biggest opportunity was a four-on-three late in overtime as Sarah Nurse was called for hooking with just 1:42 left in the extra frame. Despite a couple of good looks, Campbell and the penalty kill were able to kill it off and send it to the shootout.
“Our kill has been outstanding,” said Toronto head coach Troy Ryan. “You can just see the willingness by all them to block shots and get in front of shots and Soupy makes big saves when we need her to.”
Despite these troubles, Toronto’s top penalty killing unit of Blayre Turnbull, Renata Fast, Jocelyne Larocque and Alexa Vasko continued to provide one of the best penalty kills in the league. They are able to accomplish this through the fast and aggressive pressure they apply to their opponent.
With the penalty kill performance Toronto finished the night 95% on the penalty kill.
“It’s something we take a lot of pride in,” said Turnbull. “We have that mindset and mentality that any time we are challenged with something like killing a penalty we want to overcome it.”
Spooner continues to come up clutch
It seems like when the team needs it the most, Natalie Spooner has shown up for Toronto.
Tonight it wasn’t another multi-goal game, but instead two critical shootout moves that helped keep the team's win streak alive despite giving up the one goal lead late in the third.
It’s safe to say that once again tonight, Spooner (and Campbell for that matter) bailed out Toronto.
“Spooner asked one of the players I think it was Turnbull. She told I think I wanted to go again, I'm hot, I'm ready to go again,” said Ryan. “Then Blayre told her to ask me so she had the biggest smile ever and just kind of looked at me. I just kind of winked and I was like, yeah, you're going next.”