Toronto Sceptres fall at home to defending PWHL champs Minnesota Frost
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Another bad start and this time a lackadaisical finish sealed the Toronto Sceptres fate on Saturday afternoon at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
The defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost started strong and finished stronger as Toronto fell for the first time this year at home, dropping a 6-3 decision to fall to 1-2 on the season.
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Toronto Sceptres fall at home to defending PWHL champs Minnesota Frost Back to video
The Sceptres came into this one determined to improve on a poor showing in Ottawa earlier in the week but didn’t quite manage it.
“I think our team just wants to get back on track,” defender Renata Fast said between games. “We realize that Ottawa was very uncharacteristic of our group and I don’t think any of us are very happy coming out of that game.”
Fast went on to say how uncomfortable and tough it had been to review the game film from Ottawa.
It’s going to be at least as tough sitting through the Minnesota game for Fast and company.
A lot of the same sloppy passes and unconnected play that plagued the Sceptres in Ottawa followed them home although, as head coach Troy Ryan pointed out, there was some rather spirited play in the middle frame.
Right at the top of that list was a highlight reel goal by Daryl Watts, her first in a Toronto uniform that few will forget.
Watts anticipated a Sophie Jaques clearing pass as the Minnesota defender came out from behind her net and jumped it to put herself in alone.
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Without much space at all, Watts dipped her right shoulder and then went left to give Toronto a short-lived 3-2 lead in the game.
“Very few people in this league can do that with that level of quickness after a turnover and then being that in tight with sticks coming at you and still being able to make that type of move, it’s just a high level, high-skill move. I’m sure it will be one that will talked about at the end of the year as one of the season’s best goals for sure.”
And while that was the highlight of the afternoon for Toronto, the quick response from Minnesota — which scored just a minute later and with the period winding down — turned the game in Ryan’s opinion.
Britta Curl-Salemme’s first of two goals of the game tied the game, but coming so quick after Watts’ goal, it just seemed to take the life right out of Toronto.
Minnesota would score three in the third including an empty netter to put the game away.
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The good news for Toronto is they now have a full week of an International Break to get things right before the schedule resumes. That’s a lot of practice time to work on things.
A crowd of 7,584 took in the game that saw Minnesota dominate possession and outshooting their hosts 36-24.
Another brutal start had the Sceptres down 1-0 just under three minutes into the game. The visiting Frost were buzzing the Toronto net, hemming the home side in its own end for the bulk of those first three minutes until Claire Butorac pounced on a rebound in front of Kristin Campbell and banged it home for the early Minnesota lead.
For the second game in a row, escaping their own end was the Sceptres major issue as passes either never found their mark or just missed the target, allowing the Frost to attack in waves.
Eventually the Sceptres found their footing and started on the attack themselves with Jessie Compher jumping on a rebound off a Rylind MacKinnon shot and getting one past Maddie Rooney, who had been looking unbeatable to that point.
It was MacKinnon’s second point of the year in just her third game. One of two USports graduates to join the PWHL this year — the other is Emmy Fecteau in New York out of Concordia — MacKinnon was partnered with fellow rookie Lauren Bernard for the first time this year with Ryan loading up his first two defensive pairings with veterans.
Victoria Bach, playing on a line with Watts for the first time this season, got Toronto back even after Minnesota rookie Dominique Petrie scored her third of the season, this one on a Minnesota power play.
Bach, looking like a smaller version of Natalie Spooner, set up right in the Minnesota crease, got a stick on Fast’s point shot to direct it past Rooney to get Toronto even again.
Toronto will need a lot more of that in the coming weeks as they work their way out of this early hole they have created for themselves.
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