By Sebastian Zucchet
The Toronto Sceptres took down the number one team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL), the Montreal Victoire on Thursday night, cruising to a 4-1 victory in front of an 8,618 sellout at the Coca-Cola Coliseum.
The Victoire came into this game on a three-game win streak while the Sceptres looked to bounce back after losing their last game in Montreal 3-1. Prior to this matchup, the Victoire had beaten the Sceptres four times out of four this season.
The intensity of the game was felt in the building and matched by the players on the ice. Both teams had quality scoring chances early on, but the first real opportunity came when Toronto drew a penalty and went on the powerplay.
The Sceptres made quick work of the advantage with Natalie Spooner potting her first goal of the season in only her sixth game. It came off the back of a slick passing play, funneling through Renata Fast and Julia Gosling on its way to Spooner at the front of the net.
Spooner said the goal followed the game plan.
“We kind of thought of a play beforehand, and it ended up working out,” she said. “I hit the post at first and I was like ‘Oh man, just my luck’ but then I was able to get the rebound luckily.”
As the first period went on, the physicality grew intensely, especially from the Victoire. Though it got them in some trouble, they also kept the game close with their tight checking.
Not long after the first powerplay, Toronto were awarded a second power play after Victoire defender Cayla Barnes was called for boarding on Spectres forward Izzy Daniel. Montreal were able to kill it off and the first period ended 1-0 in favour of Toronto.
The second period followed suit from the first period in terms of intensity and scoring chances but it was the Sceptres who took advantage of their chances.
At 7:02 of the second period, the Sceptres doubled their lead through defender Allie Munroe after she tapped in a loose rebound in front of the net. Forward Hannah Miller took sole position at the top of the PWHL scoring chart with her assist on the goal.
Just fifty-nine seconds later, Sceptres forward Maggie Connors found herself on a breakaway after a great stretch pass across the ice from Daryl Watts. Connors made no mistake and scored to send the arena into a frenzy and Toronto into a 3-0 lead.
The Victoire had started backup goalie Elaine Chuli to give star goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens the night off, but after allowing three goals on fifteen shots, head coach Kori Cheverie made the decision to pull Chuli and send Desbiens into the game.
“We made the decision to try and turn the tides and shift the momentum a little bit,” said Cheverie regarding her decision to pull Chuli from the game.
It did not take long for Desbiens to leave her mark, for better and worse. Spooner blocked a shot and was off to the races when Desbiens came flying out of the net for the poke check but missed, leaving Spooner with an open net. The Victoire netminder recovered only by tripping up Spooner and sending the Sceptres back to the power play.
With the Victoire pinned in their zone, captain Marie-Philip Poulin shot the puck up and over the glass and was given a penalty, leading to a 5-on-3 advantage for the Sceptres. After fifteen seconds, Renata Fast received the puck at the point and fired it towards the net. Spooner got a piece of it with the deflection, earning her second goal of the night and the Sceptres a 4-0 lead.
As evidence of a frustrated Montreal squad, Desbiens took another penalty as a scrum ensued inside the Victoire crease with 1.6 seconds to play in the middle frame. After the dust settled, though, the Victoire received the power play heading into the third period.
The first big chance of the third period came after about halfway through. Toronto forward Hayley Scamurra was on a breakaway but Desbiens read the play and came up with a huge pad save.
There wasn’t much action throughout the rest of the third period but with four minutes to go, the Victoire salvaged a goal back through Poulin. That goal was Poulin's thirteenth of the season and when announced, got a loud cheer from the home crowd showing their respect to a Canadian icon.
The true Captain Clutch broke Sceptres goalie Kristen Campbell’s bid for a shutout, despite having herself an excellent game. Campbell finished the game with 25 saves.
The standout factor of the game was the Sceptres penalty kill, which finished the game 6/6. Head coach Troy Ryan credited the penalty kill success to assistant coach Rachel Flanagan, who has had to deal with the new “no escape rule” this year, as well as some tough competition.
“She’s done a good job. It’s mostly a good job not overloading things, just giving little tidbits of information on what you can expect from the opposition,” said Ryan.“I think everybody’s committed to just doing some little things to get us that first clear so we can get our penalty killers on the ice.”
Up next, the Sceptres host the Minnesota Frost on Sunday afternoon, while the Victoire travel to Boston to take on the Fleet on Saturday.