PWHL Toronto clinched first overall in the inaugural PWHL regular season with a 4-1 win over Minnesota highlighted by Natalie Spooner's two goal performance.
PWHL Toronto clinched first overall in the inaugural PWHL regular season with a 4-1 win over Minnesota highlighted by Natalie Spooner's two goal performance.
PWHL Toronto clinched first place with a strong 4-1 victory on home ice over Minnesota Wednesday evening.
A two-goal performance from Natalie Spooner and a powerplay goal from Hannah Miller led the way for Toronto in their victory.
Special Teams Lead The Way
In a low-scoring contest, special teams carried Toronto in their win over Minnesota. The powerplay, which has struggled this season, came alive Wednesday night in a game where they desperately needed it.
“I think a lot of it is our mentality, But it’s also the mindset we have going into it,” said Renata Fast. “We want to attack and play fast on it and it’s been working for us.”
During their first attempt with the extra skater, Miller fired home a one-timer thanks to a beautiful passing sequence from the first unit to tie the game at one apiece. The powerplay would strike again as a shot from Fast would be tipped in the high slot by Spooner to give Toronto a 2-1 lead with just under nine minutes left in the second. This goal was Spooner's sixth on the powerplay, the most of any player in the PWHL.
Toronto came into the game with a 12.5% powerplay, good for fourth in the league. If they can find a way to set up and sustain position on the powerplay this will be a deadly unit to stop come playoffs.
As is to be expected with this team, the penalty kill was once again perfect for Toronto. After taking a couple of bad penalties in the first, including a last-second hooking call on Emma Maltais. The penalty kill unit had to be on top of their game once again as they killed off all three of Minnesota’s powerplay chances including a five-on-three to start the second period.
After the performance, Toronto remains the best penalty-killing unit in the league with a 91.5% rate on the season, making it one of their greatest and most consistent strengths.
Campbell holds Toronto in
Despite only facing 26 shots, Campbell was a critical part of Toronto's victory and there is no debate. In a first period where Minnesota had three power plays and multiple chances, she stood tall, keeping Toronto in the game until they could get their barrings.
Amongst the countless critical saves in the first, her most critical came on Minnesota’s second powerplay of the game as a cross-crease pass led to Kendal Coyne Schofield was directed towards the net forcing Campbell to pull the puck off the line in the mist of a mad scramble in front of the net.
After Campbell’s one-goal performance, she is heading into the final game of the season with a 2.00 GAA and a .924 save
Spooner cant be stopped
Spooner once again came in clutch for this team scoring two of the goals for Toronto, showing once again why she is one of the best in the league at putting the puck in the net.
With her performance tonight, Spooner has now 18 goals in just 23 games played this season. The next closest player is teammate Sarah Nurse with 10.
“She just has a knack for scoring, she has the confidence to do things you need to do to be successful offensively,” said Ryan. “ Any team I've been involved in she’s either been number one or two in scoring, none of this is surprising to me, she has a knack for scoring like very few people in the world.”
This unique ability was on full display as for her second goal of the game Spooner was able to get out on a breakaway after blocking the shot ultimately finishing it with a beautiful deke to extend Toronto’s lead to 3-1.
“It’s insane, I think all of our jaws were on the floor for that second goal she had,” said Fast. “The funny thing is as soon as she blocked that shoot and took three strides and was we were like this is going in the net.”