Seattle Torrent controlled most of the game against the Ottawa Charge in a 4-1 win at home.
Though Hannah Murphy had her shutout spoiled in the final 37 seconds of the game, she still saved an impressive 24 of 25 shots in her second professional start. Once again, it gained her several “Murphy” chants throughout Climate Pledge Arena as the Seattle Torrent won their second game in a row.
The Torrent started off a little slowly, taking nearly six minutes to register a shot on goal, but continued to build steam as the first period proceeded. Julia Gosling opened scoring on the power play with just three seconds remaining in the first period off a pass from Hannah Bilka that just went right over the pad of Ottawa goaltender, Sanni Ahola. Alex Carpenter had the secondary assist on Gosling’s goal, but there was more in store for her through this game.
Seattle built on the momentum that ended the first period and squarely tilted the ice in their favor. On another power play, the puck bounced off Hilary Knight from a pass from Bilka and Carpenter backhanded it right past Ahola at 6:25 into the second. Off a beautiful pass from Megan Carter, Carpenter hit the back of the net another time at 11:29 in the second. Gosling had the secondary assist on that goal which put Carpenter on hat trick watch.
The third period went scoreless until the Charge pulled their goalie, leaving an empty net for Bilka at 18:30 assisted by Knight. Unfortunately, Ottawa put a damper on the shutout party at 19:21 when Rebecca Leslie snuck one past Murphy assisted by Rory Guilday.
After the game, Head Coach Steve O’Rourke spoke about Murphy in saying that she’s “getting some more confidence.” He also went on to talk about the synergy that’s building between the goaltenders and defenders, “You get out there, and you feel confident that you can get out to that puck and that you’re going to hear from your defense.”
Aside from stellar goaltending, there were a lot of improvements over the previous games for the Torrent which certainly helped lead to their 4-1 victory. While some of the team was at the Rivalry Series, the teammates at home continued working hard and on very detailed work.
One of those areas was the Penalty Kill which was killed off by the Torrent all four times during this game. O’Rourke credited this to the players post-game in saying, “Their intelligence and commitment to details. We had a lot of blocked shots early on there, so that’s on the bravery of the players.”
With the No Escape Rule in the PWHL where the team with the penalized player can’t change the players on the ice until the following face-off, it’s a unique situation. O’Rourke said, “We still have our special ones that we want on there [the penalty kill], but it’s unique every time. When whoever’s going to be out there, you don’t know who it’s going to be to start making sure who’s taking the face-off.”
Regarding the penalty kill, another player of note tonight was third-round pick, Lily Delianedis who made her professional debut against Ottawa. “I thought she did a great job just bringing the energy and she was good on the forecheck.” O’Rourke said. “She back-checked hard tonight and, again, you get throw into your first game, it’s just some detail work. I had her ready to kill some penalties, as at that clock winds down, you don’t get through as many rhythms with your pairs- especially that first one, usually, because they’re not the killing unit. They get stranded out there for a long chunk of time.”
With two wins in a row, and two more games at home before going on the road, the Torrent are building fantastic momentum as chemistry builds. Even when up by four, the team continued to be competitive. Post game, Gosling said of the mindset when being up so many goals, “I still want to score. I still want to keep going and build as a team. We’re kind of a no quit type team and want to keep sending the message, no matter what the score is. No quit, green light, always. It just wears down the opponent no matter what, and they’ll remember us the next time they play us.”
Three stars for this game were Bilka (3rd); Murphy (2nd); and Carpenter (1st). Seattle’s next game is against the Boston Fleet on Sunday, December 21 at 2:00 p.m. PST.