The Seattle Torrent have yet to win in regulation on the road and their fourth game on this five-game trip didn’t change that stat. What has been a third period comeback team now continues to fall short with only five regulation wins and one overtime win on the season. Two of the players with that ability to make a difference in the third are currently out of the line-up. Those players of course being Hannah Bilka out for the rest of the season with an upper-body injury, and Hilary Knight out indefinitely with a torn MCL.

The player noticeably stepping up in their stead was Mikyla Grant-Mentis. Grant-Mentis was finding her stride just at the right time. Head Coach Steve O’Rourke had commented on Grant-Mentis’s play noting that her best game had been against Ottawa on March 4 when she played over 17 minutes, had two shots on goal, three hits, and won seven out of ten faceoffs. She came out hungry for a goal in the next game played against Boston where she had five shots on goal, played over 18 minutes, and scored a Jailbreak Goal.

“I think Buckey has strung together a nice handful of games where she’s just been outstanding on both ends of the ice. I can’t say enough about her. Her just growing into the player she’s supposed to be is really cool,” said O’Rourke. “From day 1, Bummer [assistant coach Christine Bumstead] asked her to be on the power play early on in the season. She said, ‘No thanks.’ Because she wasn’t confident. She didn’t want to bobble the puck, and, now, you see her out there- five on five, and on the power play and on her penalty kill. It’s just amazing to see someone- just their belief in themselves grow, and that’s just fun.”

Unfortunately, Grant-Mentis was injured in the next game against the Frost. She took a boarding hit from Britta Curl-Salemme and was slow to get off the ice. She has now missed her third straight game with an upper-body injury. Curl-Salemme served a two-minute minor for it, but many believe it should have been more. When O’Rourke was asked about it post-game, he said, “It’s a call. Not sure how that’s not a five-minute [major] or at least looked at. I mean, we’ve lost a key player, and probably long-term because of it.”

In addition to missing players due to injury, the Torrent also made a trade prior to the March 30 deadline. The Torrent acquired Boston Fleet forward Theresa Schafzahl in exchange for Jessie Eldridge. Eldridge had 13 points in 19 games with Seattle this season whereas Schafzahl had six points in 19 games with Boston.

The trade had a lot of people scratching their heads over the reasoning, especially with General Manager Megan Turner stating, “This trade was about what we believe is the best fit for our team and the identity we’re trying to build.” However, now seeing Schafzahl in two games as a Torrent, the picture is becoming a little bit clearer.

In her first game in a Seattle sweater, Schafzahl had over eighteen minutes of ice time and registered an assist on the only goal for the Torrent that night. In her second game, the most recent road game against her former team, she had over twenty-one minutes of play and four shots on goal- the most of the team. Schafzahl showcased her speed as well, moving quickly and efficiently across the ice. She was able to move the puck through traffic and cleaned up her own rebound in the first to get her first two shots on goal of the game.

The Torrent only had nine shots on goal among the second and third periods combined. They were also shut-out for the third time this season and are still sitting in last place in the league.  It is understandable that the team is struggling with so many out of the line-up, but the system doesn’t appear to be working.

“I thought our opening shift was just really, really good. We’re having some challenges scoring goals. We could have got the first one even off the hop there. It just kind of sets the tone. We got out of that first period even and it’s just a challenge,” said O’Rourke after the most recent Boston game. “Our group just competes and has that will to compete every night and we’re going to keep pushing into that.”

At this point in the season, and with the injuries maybe it’s time to give the fourth-line players a little extra playing time. The fourth line includes first-round draft pick, Jenna Buglioni who played only 1:08 in the most recent game against the Fleet. That’s the least amount of ice time any player had in that game followed by fellow fourth-liner Marah Wagner with 1:25. Brooke Bryant had the most ice time of the three fourth line players with 2:18 which means that the fourth line had a total of 4:51 of playing time combined.

Buglioni is especially interesting in this situation because even if she has failed to perform as the organization would like in previous games, this would be the perfect time to let her work on that. There isn’t a lot to lose standings-wise, and it would make sense that she would benefit from more ice time.

The top-line players, Alex Carpenter, Danielle Serdachny, and now Schafzahl played over 67 minutes combined. The second line played nearly 60 minutes as well which includes Natalie Snodgrass, Julia Gosling, and Lexie Adzija. The lines are greatly imbalanced, which is somewhat expected, but not to this extent. The top lines appear very much overextended particularly when the team is struggling anyway.

With the PWHL’s Golden Rule for the draft, it behooves the Torrent to figure out a way to win some games going down the stretch. It will be interesting to see the adjustments moving forward as the amount of games dwindle down.

Seattle has a Takeover Tour game next in their schedule. They host the New York Sirens in Chicago on March 25.