The Toronto Sceptres continued their defensive struggles, found themselves in penalty problems, and didn't get enough zone time. It's three areas of weakness that cost Toronto against New York.
Four goals in the second period led to the New York Sirens' dominant 4-2 victory over the Toronto Sceptres in New Jersey.
The result means that Toronto stays at the bottom of the PWHL standings as they lose their third consecutive game.
Here are three thoughts from the game.
Sceptres Defensive Struggles Continue
The defensive team effort for Toronto was simply not good enough Wednesday night.
There were multiple occasions throughout the game where New York caught Toronto out of position through their skating, leading to a high number of quality scoring chances.
On top of this, Toronto was beaten in puck battles behind the net and along the boards repeatedly, allowing the Sirens to pin Toronto in their defensive zone for extensive periods of time.
In the second period the Sceptres were caught puck watching in front of the net, allowing Alex Carpenter to send a pass to a wide open Noora Tulus for the first goal of the game. This is just one of the many defensive lapses.
On the second goal of the period, a bad bounce off Lauren Bernard’s stick allowed the Sirens to find a wide open Emmy Fecteau streaking to the net. Fecteau found the rebound and tucked it home.
Bad Penalties Cost Toronto
The league's worst penalty kill continues to not be able to figure itself out, but that wasn’t even the biggest issue.
For Toronto, the biggest concern was that every penalty they took was a bad penalty, needlessly exposing one of their biggest areas of weakness.
The perfect example of this was late in the second period. After getting some momentum offensively, a late hit by Maggie Connors behind the play cut Toronto’s only positive pressure of the period short. To make matters worse Blayre Turnbull took a tripping penalty in the corner, giving New York a five-on-three advantage.
The Sirens took full advantage of their four power plays scoring two of their four goals with the extra skater.
A 50% penalty kill needs to find a way to be better.
Toronto offensive zone time lacking
Toronto needs to find a way to score while not on the rush.
They have leaned on fast break goals far too often to start the season and it has cost them. When this team has looked at its best offensively they have been cycling the puck and scoring goals in tight.
In a league with an abundance of talented defensive players patrolling the blueline, teams get limited opportunities to get a shot in close. Tonight New York didn’t give the Sceptres any.
Toronto had success when they were getting rebounds and capitalizing on them. Both Emma Miller and Emma Woods scored off of a rebound opportunity, and that only comes if you find a way to control the puck in set up.
The Sceptres only strong sequence was with four minutes left in the second hemming New York in their own zone, creating multiple scoring chances.
Tory Ryan said at practice last week that Toronto needs to continue the team's identity from the second half of last season and that it was hard forechecking and zone possession.
The Sceptres will look to break their streak on Saturday as they host the Montreal Victories.