Following the break for international competition in the PWHL, PWHL Toronto visited PWHL Boston. The first meeting of the year between the two teams, back on January 17^th, ended with a victory for Boston on the road. For Boston, that was the notable breakout 3-point game for Alina Müller. Toronto would look to even the score on cold night in Lowell. Emma Söderberg got the start again for Boston, with Kristen Campbell going for the visiting Toronto.

               The first period of the game was very choppy with both teams struggling to create high danger opportunities. 14 minutes into the frame, Toronto was able to break through on a fantastic goal by Sarah Nurse from Emma Maltais and Renata Fast. The second period was equally sluggish, but with two dynamic plays from Toronto. On the power play, Toronto would strike again. After a line change, Boston’s skaters managed to lose track of PWHL leading scorer Natalie Spooner in the neutral zone, who received a fantastic stretch pass from Lauriane Rougeau. Spooner did a little bit of moving and shaking with the puck before slipping it past Söderberg. 6 minutes later, Toronto would get their third goal of the game. In a two-on-one situation, Boston once again managed to lose track of Spooner in transition, and she made the back checkers pay by deftly sneaking a puck behind Söderberg again. The third period would be more eventful than the first two. Following a series of unlucky bounces off the boards and the cross bar, Jamie Lee Rattray would break Campbell’s shut out with assists from Theresa Schafzal and Megan Keller. Less than two minutes later, Kali Flanagan (Maltais) would throw a shot through moderate traffic to bring Toronto ahead once again by 3 goals. In another scoring whiplash, Hannah Brandt would score shorthanded with assists from Keller and Taylor Girard less than a minute later. Over the next 9 minutes Boston would throw their might at Campbell, but were unsuccessful, and surrendered an empty-net goal to Spooner to complete the hat trick. In the dying minutes of the game, Girard beat Campbell to bring the score to 5-3, but that was as close as Boston was going to get on the scoreboard.

               Some key takeaways from the contest are as follows. Kristen Campbell has been great for Toronto and has been huge for them every time they’ve needed her to be this year. Natalie Spooner is an Auston Matthews-type impact player in this league, and if a team does not deliberately keep her in check for 60 minutes, you will need to find a way to match her goal scoring. For Boston, the team has executed well, even in their losses, but Courtney Kessel’s line change timing and philosophy continues to murder this team in games. Boston has out created on opportunities in their last 2 games against Toronto and Montreal but has conceded borderline unstoppable scoring chances by giving too much open space to incredibly talented players. I look forward to both teams’ return to action this weekend.