Ottawa leap frogged Boston in the standings with a 4-2 regulation win on the road in Lowell Monday night led by a pair of Gabbie Hughes goals.
Ottawa leap frogged Boston in the standings with a 4-2 regulation win on the road in Lowell Monday night led by a pair of Gabbie Hughes goals.
PWHL Ottawa snapped their five-game losing streak with a 4-2 win over Boston on Monday night. It was their first win since January 23rd, a 3-1 win at TD Place over Toronto.
Midway through the first period, Daryl Watts jumped on the puck with a two-on-one opportunity with Brianne Jenner. Watts dished the puck off to Jenner, who fed it right back for Watts with an open net tap in. It was a crucial first goal for Ottawa, something they needed on the road. In her 11th consecutive game, goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer went 10/10 in the save department in the opening frame.
Boston was hungry to tie the game up as both teams entered the second period. On an odd-player rush with Megan Keller owning a clear lane to the net, Zoe Boyd dove out and knocked the puck away with her stick. Keller, however, ended up crashing into Maschmeyer off of Boyd’s contact. The three bodies knocked off the net, and the puck ended up on the stick of Taylor Girard who shot the puck towards the net. While the puck did not enter the net while it was in place, after a long review, it was deemed a goal for Boston, tying the game at 1-1. Later in the period, Emily Brown and Megan Keller took back-to-back minors, giving Ottawa a chance to get the lead back. On the power play Emily Clark fired the puck off of Aerin Frankel’s pad, rebounding onto Gabbie Hughes’ stick. She faked a shot, sliding to her left and shot it past Frankel to make it 2-1 for Ottawa.
The lead was short lived however, as Boston tied the game up a minute and three seconds later. Boston defender Abby Cook held on to the puck near the blue line and fired a seeing eye shot through a maze of bodies.
Late in the second, a Katerina Mrazova penalty put Ottawa to the penalty kill with 1:23 left. In the final stages of the second, Emily Clark and Gabbie Hughes held the puck in the Boston end. As Clark forechecked behind the net, she fed a backhand pass into the slot with Hughes on the doorstep. Hughes quickly shot the puck beating Frankel to make it 3-2 Ottawa. Hughes' second of the game came with 11.5 seconds left in the second period, giving Ottawa some much needed momentum going into the third. It was Ottawa’s second jailbreak goal of the year, wiping off the rest of the Mrazova minor.
The third period was another even 20 minutes from both teams. There were a couple of clutch plays such as a Maschmeyer save on Loren Gabel and a Aneta Tejralova stick lift defending a 2-on-0. Ottawa tightened up defensively blocking out any high danger chances that came Boston’s way. With time wining down Brianne Jenner blocked a pass at the blueline and finished the game off with an empty net goal.
With the 4-2 win, Ottawa passes Boston for 5th in the league with a record of 3-0-4-3. The two teams will face off again on Wednesday night at Tsongas Arena for a 7pm start.