Crease Crunch: Comparing Every Goal Scored On PWHL Starters This Year

The PWHL season is one quarter of the way through. Scoring remains low not for lack of forward talent, but because of the elite level of goaltending on display. No position featured more depth heading into the PWHL Draft, evidenced by players like future Hall of Famer Noora Raty, and Olympic gold medalist Maddie Rooney going unselected.

Through the early days of the PWHL season, Aerin Frankel (Boston), Nicole Hensley (Minnesota), Ann-Renee Desbiens (Montreal), Corinne Schroeder (New York), Emerance Maschmeyer (Ottawa), and Kristen Campbell (Toronto) have emerged as starters. There are, however, a number of netminders including Emma Soderberg, Abbey Levy, Elaine Chuli, and Maddie Rooney who have emerged to play important minutes.

Here's a look at how each starting goaltender stacks up to date.

Aerin Frankel is the smallest goaltender among PWHL starters. Through three starts and a relief effort after Boston pulled Soderberg, Frankel has an impressive 1.91 GAA and .925 save percentage.

What Frankel lacks in size, she makes up for with positioning and quickness. One item that stands out for Frankel is the percentage of goals that have beat her from beyond the hashmarks. High blocker side Frankel has been beat cleanly multiple times this season. Frankel's quick glove is displayed by the fact nothing has beat her high glove this season.

Nicole Hensley has been a tough netminder to beat this season posting a .948 save percentage and 1.58 GAA, both tops among starting goaltenders. Hensley has yet to allow more than two goals against in any of her five appearances this season. She's susceptible to shows from outside the house, but can also utilize her lateral movement to get to pucks she shouldn't. A technically strong goalie who seems calm in her crease, Hensley doesn't let many sneak through her body. 

Ann-Renee Desbiens is widely considered one of the best on the planet for her play in international competition. She's faced more shots against than any netminder in the league so far facing 185 shots, or an average of 30.8 shots per game. Desbiens has allowed a small number of goals she clearly wanted back including one from the goal line and another from the right circle that slipped between her body and arm. At the World Championships last year, Desbiens was exposed glove side in the gold medal game, but this season hasn't shown a singular spot where she can be beat. What Desbiens has done is stopped several chances that she had no business getting to, including in a shootout loss to Toronto. She's so calm, and able to quickly regroup after a goal. Desbiens is the definition of a big game goalie.

Corinne Schroeder has been the PWHL's best goaltender this season for New York. She sits just below Hensley with a 1.79 GAA and .946 save percentage, but doing so facing a much higher percentage of shots from scoring positions. Looking at where shots have beat Schroeder this season, the vast majority have come from inside or right on top of her crease. Similarly, to beat Schroeder, it's all about pucks moving across the royal road to get her moving. While commentators have brought up the fact she sometimes leaves rebounds in play, Schroeder more often steers those rebounds to safety or smothers pucks before additional attempts come. She's big, square, and athletic, and playing her angles, does not give shooters much to look at.

Emerance Maschmeyer has started all but one game for Ottawa, and that game replaced Sandra Abstreiter before the first period was finished due to an injury. Her stats sit fifth among the PWHL's six starters with a 1.89 GAA and .923 save percentage, both numbers that are more than respectable. Maschmeyer has not let anything through her five-hole this season, and is not being beat through her body. Ottawa has dropped three games in overtime and five by a single goal, showing Maschmeyer is keeping Ottawa in games. She's also faced, and stopped, penalty shot attempts from Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey.

If there's a goaltender with patterns emerging it's Kristen Campbell. Toronto is simply allowing too many scoring opportunities from the crease. Seeing where goals are coming from on the ice, more than 50% of the shots that beat Campbell are from within a sticks length of the crease, or inside the blue paint itself. One aspect that has emerged in this pattern is her susceptibility to pucks sliding through her five hold when you get her moving. It's an issue some bigger goalies face. The other point on Campbell is that shots from her right side are finding the high glove corner. While Campbell sits last among starters with a 2.83 GAA and .890 save percentage, Toronto must clean up their net front and start to restrict shots from the house. In their final game before the all-star break against New York, Toronto kept everything to the periphery, and it resulted in a shutout by Campbell and 2-0 win for Toronto.