Ottawa Wins Crucial Game Over Boston In Shootout

PWHL Ottawa held onto the final playoff spot in the PWHL standings with a shootout win over Boston at home.

In the big games it’s about big game players showing up and that’s exactly what happened for PWHL Ottawa on Wednesday night. The game itself for PWHL Ottawa in the inaugural PWHL season, it was the franchise’s most important game for the newborn team with the playoffs directly at stake. Katerina Mrazova, Brianne Jenner, Emerance Maschmeyer and Emily Clark all pillars of PWHL Ottawa showed up in the proverbial game where you “treat it like another game but it’s not another game”, as only 2 points separated PWHL Ottawa and PWHL Boston entering the game. On Pride Night PWHL Ottawa showed their own pride to never give up as they came back in the third period to win 3-2 in a shootout in their first overtime/shootout win of the season.

The fans who made sure they were there for the opening puck drop for the Pride festivities, had their smiles become frowns as Hilary Knight off a faceoff quickly sneaked the puck through Emerance Maschmeyer to make it 1-0 Boston, 1:30 into the game.

It was a blow to Ottawa but they weren’t perturbed.

“If you get a little bit too anxious, that energy is contagious,” said Emily Clark. “So I think on the bench, we did a really good job of just staying calm.”

Calm they were in the biggest game up to that point in franchise history.

Within six minutes, their captain picked the team up from her bootstraps scoring on the powerplay to tie the game 1-1, following a beautiful cross-seam pass from Daryl Watts.

The line of Watts, Jenner and Mrazova was reunited scoring the powerplay goal but there then became a worry that Mrazova in her return after a month long injury that saw her miss out on playing the World Championships when she went into the boards hard and hobbled off the ice. Luckily she was not worse for wear, as her and her linemates continued to put pressure and creating opportunities in the Boston zone.

“She's the heartbeat of our team,” said Emily Clark.

Boston continued to carry the play and were rewarded when hometown hero Jamie Lee Rattray stole the puck from Aneta Tejralova at Ottawa’s blueline who walked into a breakaway neatly sliding the puck between Maschmeyer’s legs to make it 2-1 Boston with 58 seconds left in the first period.

In the second period Ottawa and Boston went back and forth at a frenetic pace. It forced both goaltenders to make excellent saves, the most outstanding of them was when Emerance Maschmeyer made a diving pad save on a breakaway on Megan Keller.

“She made some huge saves, that one(breakaway) might be the save of the year,” said Carla Macleod. “Usually I was the defender that gave up that chance for my goalies.”

Maschmeyer through the entire first 40 minutes made big save after big save to keep Ottawa within touching distance of Boston. Ottawa struggled slowing down Hilary Knight’s line who constantly created chances.

PWHL Ottawa had been riding a six-game point streak heading into the game, with 20 minutes left in the game the streak wasn’t going to end on Ottawa’s watch.

“Some nights you're not playing your best, You're not feeling your best,” said Carla MacLeod. “I think that was actually one of our nights. But we talked about it this time of year you got to find a way to win.”

Ottawa found a way to win. Ottawa began to generate more pressure especially off the rush and were able to crack through the Boston defences because of one of their stars leading the way. Emily Clark, as the star she is, skated well past a Boston defence to quickly slid over a puck to Hughes at the backdoor who had an open net to tie the game 2-2 with 8:46 left in the third period. Clark single handedly created a goal from nothing.

“I tried to use my speed and drive it and I felt like I had a step,” said Clark. “I knew Gabby was going to the net, so I threw it out there and obviously she does what Gabby does and finished it.”

The last 8 minutes were antsy for both teams but neither could score. Leading PWHL Ottawa to know that they would maintain a lead ahead of PWHL Boston in the standings with an overtime point because they stopped Boston from securing 3 points in regulation.

The overtime was just as wild as the third period, with both Watts and Clark having their own breakaways but neither could score. That left it to a shootout. Ottawa had yet to win an overtime or shootout game all season going 0-6 in games that were not settled in regulation.

Luckily PWHL Ottawa had Katerina Mrazova to save the day. Mrazova was Ottawa's first shooter, she made no mistake scoring with a beautiful forehand to backhand move. Boston would tie the shootout on their next shot. Nobody scored for the next three rounds. So, it was up to Mrazova to shoot again but she hadn’t thought about what move she would make after her first successful shootout move.

“I was talking to Aneta Tejralova next to me,” said Mrazova. “I was trying to figure out what to do and maybe thinking of going back again with the same move. But then I remembered what I did in Boston the last time we had a shootout, I did that same move and slid the puck between the goalies legs, so I went with that again, and it worked.”

Mrazova showed off her elite talent with two separate shootout goals with two different moves to win the game for Ottawa and finally end their overtime/shootout curse.

“I guess the monkeys are probably off our backs a little bit,” said Clark.

Ottawa’s win also brings them one step closer to a playoff spot, with their magic number to clinch a playoff spot is 3 points. Ottawa with a regulation win can clinch a spot against PWHL Montreal on Saturday, or a combination of Ottawa earning points and Boston dropping them will secure Ottawa a playoff berth.

All in all Ottawa got the job done to put themselves in the driver’s seat to make the first ever PWHL playoffs.

“It’s so nice to get our first overtime (shootout) win,” said Clark. “It’s obviously a crucial time in the season. We all know what that game meant and couldn't be happier.”