PWHL Toronto's top players continued to shine as they beat PWHL Ottawa, ending Ottawa's playoff hopes in the final game of the inaugural PWHL season.
PWHL Toronto's top players continued to shine as they beat PWHL Ottawa, ending Ottawa's playoff hopes in the final game of the inaugural PWHL season.
PWHL Toronto eliminated Ottawa from the playoffs in their last game at the Mattamy Athletic Centre with a 5-2 win Sunday evening.
Natalie Spooner and Sarah Nurse led the way offensively while Kristen Campbell had a career-high in saves to help Toronto end the season on a high note.
Stars Shine
In a game that didn’t mean anything for Toronto, the stars continued to perform at their torrid pace.
Spooner was able to get involved early, beating a diving Emerance Maschmeyer just a minute into the opening frame for her 19th goal of the season.
“She has done that for 24 games,” said coach Troy Ryan. “She’s been someone we have been able to rely on from day one. Any time you have a team that's in first place in large part because of the offense she has produced, I think she is a front runner {for MVP} for sure.”
Later in the period, Nurse scored a beautiful goal after cycling the puck along the boards herself before cutting in front of the net and shooting over the shoulder of Maschmeyer and into the net.
Spooner would then come in clutch for Toronto once again scoring the game-winning goal with just over six minutes left.
With their performances, Spooner was the top goal and point scorer in the league with 20 and 27 while Nurse finished tied for second in points with Poulin and Alex Carpenter who all finished the season with 23 points.
Toronto Takes too many penalties
At the start of this game, Toronto dominated play, they outshot Ottawa 7-1 after five minutes and controlled the pace of play. That all changed after Jesse Compher was assessed a major penalty for boarding after a needless hit on Katerina Mrazova.
The five-minute power play shifted the momentum back to Ottawa and they would keep it for the rest of the game.
This was also the case in the third as Lauriane Rougeau took a delay of a game penalty behind her net to put Ottawa back on the powerplay, once again shifting the momentum away from the team.
The penalty kill has been a strength for this team all season but with costly penalties like that, Toronto could find themselves in some trouble during the playoffs.
Campbell stands tall
Toronto’s netminder has been a rock for them all season, but tonight might have been one of her best this season as she kept Toronto in the tight contest.
One of Campbell’s best sequences of the night came in the second period where she was forced to make back-to-back pad saves to keep the game knotted at two.
"The way she’s managed things, she has remained calm and chill all season long,” said Ryan. “She’s come a long way in how she embraces that number one role and it wasn't easy at the start she was feeling the pressure of our team losing and she was able to stick with it.”
Campbell made a season-high 41 saves in the game giving her the confidence you look for heading into the playoffs.