With the loss of Natalie Spooner, PWHL Toronto has struggled, and PWHL Minnesota has shut them down. THN's Ian Kennedy takes a look at the situation.
PWHL Toronto opened the PWHL Walter Cup semi-finals with a 4-0 win. It was dominant. They followed that up with a 2-0 win, but it was 0-0 until 1:25 remaining in the game.
Fast forward to game three, and the tides had turned. It was Minnesota who shutout Toronto 2-0. In game four Minnesota again shutout Toronto 1-0, and played stifling defence.
Toronto, particularly in the absence of Natalie Spooner, failed to get pucks into the middle of the ice in the offensive zone, and they lacked controlled possession in the offensive zone. Spooner's calling card has been a hard driving approach taking away time and space from defenders and breaking driving the middle of the ice and net.
Without Spooner, Minnesota's defence did an excellent job stepping up at the blueline to stop the rush, and their forwards provided back pressure funnelling the attack to the walls. From there Toronto was forced to either dump pucks in, or they were smothered with physical play forcing turnovers.
In particular, Maggie Flaherty, Natalie Buchbinder, and Lee Stecklein have been a trio of physical presence for Minnesota, and Sophie Jaques has defended well to shut down Toronto's attack.
Watch the video above for examples and Ian Kennedy's full analysis on the situation.