The Toronto Sceptres let a two goal lead slip away against the New York Sirens, allowing the Sirens to match them in the PWHL standings with only three games remaining. It's an effort Toronto was not happy with.
The Toronto Sceptres dropped three important points to the New York Sirens, who they now sit tied with for fifth overall in the PWHL. New York however, owns the tiebreaker, meaning the 3-2 loss, pushes Toronto to sixth.
It came after jumping out to a 2-0 lead in the game, which Toronto let slip away. It's a loss the team felt in the locker room according to defender Ella Shelton.
“Felt that one in the room — that was a tough one to lose," Shelton said. "I think we started off [the game] not amazing, and then we found our footing underneath us; and I think we then sat back a little bit. We just have to be a team that’s not going to sit back and go push forward. We’re in a playoff push with some pretty tight points between this team [New York] and Ottawa [so we need to be better].”
Although they scored shorthanded, head coach Troy Ryan felt Toronto's five consecutive penalties in the second and third period were a critical error for the team.
“You can’t spend that much time in the box," said Ryan. "Even the types of penalties we took, you know we deserve the penalties, lacking details — mostly stick details — but just executional plays. We deserved those penalties, it was great to kill some of them, but ultimately, they found a way to get one which cost us the game.”
New York will face Ottawa, Toronto, and Boston in their final three games, while Toronto has Minnesota, Ottawa, and New York remaining.
Ottawa leads Toronto and New York by two points in the standings.