The PWHL started off a rivalry doubleheader Saturday with their first iteration of the Battle of Ontario between PWHL Ottawa and PWHL Toronto. Ottawa picked up their first win of the season by a score of 5-1 over their provincial rivals.

               The opening 8-minutes of the game were even until Jesse Compher and Blayre Turnbull took a pair of minor penalties in rapid succession, allowing Ottawa an opportunity to test out their 5-on-3 strategy, and their practice paid immediate dividends with Katerina Mrazova and Gabbie Hughes scoring 48 seconds apart to take an early 2-0 lead. The period continued to go Ottawa’s way with Daryl Watts scoring her first goal of the season with 16 seconds before the intermission. Less than two minutes into the second period, Natalie Spooner scored Toronto’s first goal at home this season, and her second of the year so far. However, Natalie Snodgrass would answer 4 minutes later to bring Ottawa’s lead back to 3 goals. The rest of the second period saw Toronto outshoot Ottawa 14 to 11, but Emerance Maschmeyer would not surrender another goal the rest of the period or the game (23 saves on 24 total shots). In a very even, but interesting, third period, Gabbie Hughes tallied her second goal of the game to put the dagger in Toronto’s hopes of a comeback.

               As mentioned in my takeaway from the Montreal at Minnesota game last weekend, we’re continuing to see the emergence of this generation of star players in Women’s Hockey, and both Gabbie Hughes and Natalie Spooner have been showing that they can excel under the bright lights of Canadian Professional Hockey with impressive offensive performances. Both teams return to action on Wednesday night, and I look forward to seeing who’s next up to put on an exceptional performance under these bright spotlights.