PWHL Toronto has hit their stride, but Saturday's loss to Toronto marked Minnesota's third loss in four games.
PWHL Toronto has hit their stride, but Saturday's loss to Toronto marked Minnesota's third loss in four games.
PWHL Minnesota dropped Saturday's contest against PWHL Toronto as a 24-save performance from Kristen Campbell and three points from Natalie Spooner lifted their team to a 4-1 victory at the Mattamy Athletic Centre.
The match marked the first time Nicole Hensley relinquished over two goals in a game, which speaks more to her excellent play throughout the season rather than the number on the scoreboard today.
"She's [Hensley] pretty good. I don't know if she really should have had any of the ones that came," Toronto head coach Troy Ryan said. "Turnbull's goal was great, a nice drive to the net looking back door. Spooner is just doing what Spooner does well: taking pucks to the net. I definitely don't think there's many she'd take back. She's a tough goalie—you just gotta get in her face."
Aside from a couple of rush shots from Kendall Coyne Schofield and Denisa Křížová, Toronto controlled play for the first 10 minutes. Toronto forced defensive zone turnovers and pressured Minnesota's blue line along the boards behind Hensley.
While battling for the puck, Maggie Connors looked behind her and saw a wide-open Sarah Nurse in the slot. She pried the puck away from Lee Stecklein behind Hensley and fed Nurse for an open look. Hensley saved the first shot, but Nurse picked up the rebound and had a yawning cage to shoot at.
However, she roofed the puck high and wide despite Minnesota's netminder being outside the blue paint.
Kali Flanagan sailed the puck into the stands at the 14:20 mark of the first, sending the visitors to the power play. Minnesota's power play failed to score, and later in the frame, Maggie Flaherty took a penalty of her own to send Toronto to the player advantage.
Rebecca Leslie fed a streaking Nurse in the slot on the ensuing opportunity, who quickly handed it off to Spooner. Spooner barrelled towards the net and got off two shots in quick succession—Hensley stopped the first, but Spooner slid the second by her, putting Toronto up 1-0 with 53.4 seconds to go.
Allie Munroe sent Minnesota to the power play early in the second period, but just like their first penalty kill, Toronto's aggressiveness held off the State of Hockey.
With eight minutes remaining, Kelly Pannek got a clean zone entry and threw a shot toward Campbell. Coyne Schofield crashed the net and had the puck bounce off her and past Campbell, knotting the game at one apiece. A chorus of boos reigned down as fans felt an interference penalty against Minnesota should have been called moments before the marker, but despite being vocal, the home fan's displeasure fell to the wayside.
"I think in that atmosphere, the crowd was definitely against us today," Grace Zumwinkle said regarding the crowd's booing of Coyne Schofield. "But I think it just motivated us to keep going, and I think no matter what it is, if it's our home rink or whatever it is, that you're always going to get their team's best, especially at home."
Toronto took over after Coyne Schofield's third of the season, culminating with under three to go. An errant pass and a wide-point shot sparked a mad scramble in front of Minnesota's net. Hensley stoned Hannah Miller while lying on her side. The puck fluttered to Renata Fast, who ripped a shot past Hensley, notching her first of the season.
Sophia Kunin took a head-contact penalty near the end of the second stanza, decking Spooner, who was poking around Hensley's pads post-whistle. Toronto carried the power play into the third but couldn't capitalize.
Toronto double-upped on goals halfway through the final frame. Spooner fed Blayre Turnbull to make it 3-1, then 16 seconds later, Spooner tipped in Jocelyn Larocque's point shot to make it 4-1 Toronto.
"Blayre scored a goal, Fasty [Renata Fast] scored a goal, so I think we're getting rolling now," Spooner said.
Toronto held off a late power play opportunity and knocked off one-seed Minnesota to win their second-straight game.
"I thought it was a good hockey game," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said. "I didn't love our first five minutes, but I liked the rest of our first period, and our second period especially—we gave up that one late in the second that kind of sucked a lot of momentum, and when they can score two in a minute, it's tough to win a hockey game."
Hensley Allows Four
Hensley let four goals get by her for the first time in her PWHL career. While the blame does not fall on her for any of the four allowed today, it's shocking it has taken six games for more than two to squeak by her.
"Both her and Maddie [Rooney] definitely keep us in games," Zumwinkle said. "If it's a letdown in the offensive zone or whatever it is, we always know they have our backs. So we're grateful to have two great goalies, but I think we could've been better for them upfront today."
Hensley will serve as one of three goalies for the United States during the upcoming rivalry series matches. She will join eight Minnesota teammates as they face off against Team Canada.
Minnesota Lacking Special Team Support
Minnesota remains tied for first in the PWHL standings despite the loss. Mostly, they've run the PWHL table, impressively doing so while possessing the worst penalty kill—78.6— and tied-for-worst power play percentage—4.2—in the league. But this poor percentage is not due to a lack of trying.
Their power play went scoreless despite creating good looks for themselves. On the player advantage, Minnesota is effective at passing the puck, finding open players, and working their way to prime scoring areas near the net; however, time and time again, their power play endeavours come up empty.
"The first one especially, we had some great looks—we seem to be getting great looks—we just need to be getting great finishes," coach Klee said. "We're probably going to have to try and get some ugly goals here and a little more traffic around the net and simplify things a little bit."
Toronto netted their second power-play goal of the season on their first opportunity late in the first. While Minnesota's penalty kill improved as the game progressed, most notably in the third period, where Toronto struggled to set up, they remain the only PWHL team with a sub-80% penalty kill.
Minnesota's Rush Chances
While Minnesota struggled to retain offensive zone pressure and mount time in Toronto's end, something they continue to do well is generating rush opportunities. Their first two shots of the game came off their forwards streaking over the blue line and firing shots on Campbell.
"I think we try to counter quickly, especially off their turnovers or out of our [defensive] zone off of clean breakouts," Zumwinkle said. "I think they [Toronto] did a great job of defending those rushes and pinning us before we could get into the zone, but I think just using speed is our biggest asset entering the zone."
While Toronto's aggressiveness in the neutral zone limited Minnesota's opportunities, Coyne Schofield, one of the best players in the PWHL at generating rush chances, picked up her team's lone goal after crashing the net.
Minnesota returns to action on Feb. 14 as they host PWHL Ottawa at Xcel Energy Centre. Between Minnesota's matches, catch players from all over the PWHL compete in the final leg of the 2023-24 rivalry series this upcoming week.