Costly turnovers and special-teams struggles derailed the Sceptres' high-scoring night, dropping them into sixth place. Travel woes were only a small part of the story.
The Toronto Sceptres’ 6–4 loss to the Seattle Torrent on Tuesday night was chaotic, frustrating, and potentially expensive in the standings.
It was the highest-scoring game in the PWHL this season, and an outlier in more ways than one. Toronto, who have had trouble scoring this season, set up a 2–0 lead before the game was three minutes old, only to watch momentum swing sharply in a contest that never fully settled. Seattle ultimately capitalized on turnovers and special-teams moments, handing Toronto a loss that drops the Sceptres into sixth place — with Seattle now just one point behind them and holding two games in hand.
The result stings even more given the context. Toronto’s trip west began with a three-hour delay on the tarmac Sunday evening due to a mechanical issue, adding stress and uncertainty to an already long journey ahead of games in Seattle and Vancouver. It wasn’t the first disruption of the season either; last week, the Sceptres were delayed in Boston before returning home, though the team said they used that unexpected time productively. This time, the response — and the outcome — looked different.
Head coach Troy Ryan liked how his team started, but was upfront about where the game turned.
“I loved the start,” Ryan said. “Thought we were playing the right way to start, and then puck management was as bad as it gets at this level… costly turnovers on the blue line. Any team that makes those kinds of turnovers in those areas are going to lose games in this league.”
Those mistakes proved especially costly on a night where Seattle spread its scoring across the lineup. Former Sceptres rookie Julia Gosling scored against her old team and continues to have a breakout season, while defender Megan Carter — also selected by Seattle in expansion — recorded her first PWHL goal against her original club.
The loss also marked the most goals goaltender Raygan Kirk has allowed in a single game, though it came in a night defined more by chaos than collapse. Kirk entered the game with the same .917 save percentage she posted across 10 games last season, and remains statistically unchanged year over year despite the result in Seattle.
Toronto now turns quickly to Vancouver on Thursday, still in the middle of a demanding West Coast swing. With teams like Seattle and Vancouver benefiting from geography, time changes, and travel realities, holding serve at home may become an increasingly important edge — and one that visiting teams can’t afford to compound with mistakes.
As Ryan put it, "“[Seattle] like using the weak side of the ice like any good team will, and we just weren’t picking that up — overcommitting on the strong side and giving them too much space. When you couple that with bad puck management, it’s not good.”
For the Sceptres, this was a painful loss, and one that may linger in the standings.
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