PWHL Toronto started slow and couldn't find their fire against Boston in a 2-1 loss. Curtis Martin looks at what went right, and what went wrong for Toronto.
A lack of urgency in Toronto’s game was the difference as they fell 2-1 t at the hands of a hungry PWHL Boston.
Renata Fast Scored the lone goal for Toronto while Kristen Campbell made 19 saves on 21 shots in the loss.
Here's a look at the loss.
Penalty Kill Drives The Bus
The penalty kill has been a critical part of PWHL Toronto’s success this season and tonight it was when they played some of their best hockey.
Having no momentum in the opening half of the first period, Toronto finally found their spark after the Allie Munroe penalty at the nine-minute mark of the period. On the kill, they came alive applying a pressure to Boston’s powerplay unit. This pressure led to a lengthy amount of time in Boston’s zone and in turn a grade A opportunity for Natalie Spooner that she could not capitalize on.
“I’ve liked our kill all year, we talk a lot about the mentality”, said Troy Ryan. “We have some players that thrive in that situation. They are aggressive and don’t mind taking chances if the powerplay gets lazy, all year our penalty kill has been a pretty good way to swing the momentum for us.”
With Toronto going two for two on the penalty kill tonight they will head to Montreal with the best kill in the league with a 93% effectiveness on the season.
Renata Fast on fire
Coming off of an impressive World Championships, Fast was able to carry over her play as she returned to PWHL Toronto.
Aside from scoring the lone goal for Toronto in the third, she took charge of the offence with multiple other opportunities, including another short-side chance in the game's final moments. In her last three PWHL games, Fast has scored two goals showing more of an offensive touch.
This offensive change has been in the works all season as Ryan has been pushing Fast to have more of a shoot-first mentality in her game and with the recent results from Worlds and the PWHL it’s safe to say it’s been paying dividends for the veteran blueliner.
“He’s {Troy Ryan} been emphasizing it with the whole defence core,” said Fast. “It makes it easier when you know he has confidence in you and he is ok with you making some mistakes and taking some calculated risks.”
Toronto shows a lack of fire
Toronto didn’t display fire till it was too late. From the moment the puck dropped Boston dominated Toronto, controlling both the speed of play and possession of the puck.
They did have scoring chances but it was the battles along the boards and the passing mistakes throughout the first two periods that made it seem that after the long break, Toronto could not get up for this game on time.
“Not a bad third, but sloppy to start, we didn’t do a good job breaking out in the first period," said Ryan. “It was one of those games where we wanted all four lines going and we didn’t get it done. We didn’t want to be in a situation where we are grinding out these last five games, but we weren't ready to go.”