Ottawa Charge come up empty in PWHL loss to Toronto Sceptres

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The Ottawa Charge clearly was the second-best team at TD Place on Tuesday night.

And despite some exceptional goaltending of Emerance Maschmeyer, the Charge wound up with what it deserved.

Blayre Turnbull scored with 8:56 left in the third period to give the Toronto Sceptres a 4-2 victory over the Charge in front of 6,526 fans.

Turnbull’s goal came after Ottawa defender Ronja Savolainen lost the puck inside the Charge blue line.

Emma Maltais cemented the victory by scoring with 1:58 left and Maschmeyer on the bench in favour of an extra attacker.

It was the first regulation-time defeat for the Charge in five games, leaving Ottawa with a 4-0-2-4 record.

The win improved the last-place Sceptres to 3-0-2-5.

Maschmeyer, Ottawa’s best player this season, was once again brilliant as the Charge were outshot 38-24.

Manon McMahon and Victoria Bach scored for the Charge, while Hannah Miller and Maggie Connors also scored for Toronto.

Toronto took advantage of a defensive-zone turnover to jump out in front 2-1 on a goal by Maggie Connors, who unleashed a wrist shot from the high slot that beat a screened Maschmeyer over her stick-side shoulder 8:46 into the middle period.

The Charge knotted the count on a weird one less than five minutes later.

From a scrum of players along the backboards, the puck was shot out towards the front of the net, where it hit the right skate of goalie Kristen Campbell and into the net.

The goal was credited to Bach.

The Sceptres outshot the Charge 14-5 in the first period but thanks to Maschmeyer the teams were tied 1-1 heading into the intermission.

Ottawa opened the scoring with its third shot on goal, during a power play, when defender Allie Munroe coughed the puck up to Bach, who set up McMahon for her second of the season.

The assist extended Bach’s point streak to three games.

The Sceptres evened the count six minutes later when a point shot by former Ottawa forward Daryl Watts deflected up in the air to Sarah Nurse, who laid a perfect bunt down for Hannah Miller to swipe into the gaping net.

ICE CHIPS

The next Charge game is part of the PWHL’s takeaway tour, against the first-place Montreal Victoire, on Sunday at the Videotron Centre in Quebec City. Looking at the Ticketmaster website, only a few seats remain and they’re at the top of the end sections … Former Charge players Savannah Harmon and Hayley Scammura were welcomed back to TD Place with an ovation from the crowd just past the midway mark of the first period.