Watts Electrifies As Sceptres Hand New York Another Blow To Their Playoff Hopes

A tightly played goaltender battle on Wednesday saw the Toronto Sceptres come away with a huge three-point victory over the New York Sirens. It was the Sceptres’ first game in ten days, and the win helps solidify their playoff position. For New York, the lack of points hurts their attempt to climb back into the playoff picture.

Early on, the Sceptres looked to have some good jump, as Hayley Scamurra broke in with an early scoring chance and Daryl Watts had another partial breakaway, but both were stopped by Corinne Schroeder.

At 16:11 of the first, Watts made a skilled play to cut to the middle of the slot and put it high over Schroeder's glove to make it 1-0, her seventh goal of the season.

Watts said, “I try to generate a lot of speed in the neutral zone, and then carry that momentum, cut across, I think it’s really challenging for the defender to have to step up or swivel their hips and keep playing me as I cut across.”

“Hopefully I’m more consistent from here on out heading into the end of the season.”

When Toronto took its second penalty of the frame, Jesse Compher almost had a jailbreak goal but hit the post.

At 1:20 into the second, Watts got her second of the game with a seeing-eye wrist shot that was challenged by New York for goaltender interference, as it appeared that Hannah Miller touched the skate of Schroeder. However, it was ruled a good goal.

New York coach Greg Fargo said,

“When we reviewed the goal from our vantage pint, it looked like goalie interference to us, where our goaltender’s feet are in the crease, and as the puck’s coming, their player runs into our goalie’s glove and doesn’t allow her to make the save while she’s in the crease. That was a key turning point in the game. I didn’t agree with the call, still don’t agree with it, but that’s how it went.”

Later in the middle period, a face-off win led to a shot by Ella Shelton that missed, but bounced to the other side of the net, where Alex Carpenter was waiting. She tucked it in with a backhand up and over Kristen Campbell's pad to cut into the Sceptres’ lead.

Shots were 22-17 for New York after two periods.

In the third, rookie Sarah Fillier hit the post on a breakaway, but otherwise the Sceptres kept most of the Sirens’ chances to the outside.

“We love when ‘Schroeds’ is playing her game, she looks comfortable back there,” said Shelton. “When we play well in front of her, I think it gives her that boost of confidence as well that this game is going to go in our favor, but in that first period she bailed us out. When Schroeder is on, the rest of us are like, we have to pick it up here; let’s get our chances and play for our goalie. She made some incredible saves so it’s on us to put the puck in the net.”

However, a too many players on the ice infraction by Toronto with just three minutes left gave the Sirens a golden chance to tie the game. They tripped themselves up with their own too-many-players penalty, and the Sceptres escaped danger.

“We’d like to think that we’re better than that performance,” said coach Troy Ryan.

“It doesn’t take anything away from the win and the three points, because there’s a lot of great things in that game, but I said, if someone came to the rink and watched the Sceptres for the first time, could they leave knowing what we do well? And I don’t think they could tonight, because I don’t think we consistently did any one thing that’s in our identity, so , it’s nice that you get away it tonight, and we found a way to get the three points, but as the year gets to the playoffs and deeper, that’s going to cost you more times than it’s not.”

Both Campbell and Schroeder were named as stars of the game, but Watts’ two goals earned her the first star.