Toronto Sceptres quick out of the gate in Season 2 with win in opener
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If Game 1 of the second season of the PWHL is any indication, buckle up for even more physicality than the league provided in Year 1.
Toronto squeaked out a 3-1 win in a very physical season opener over Boston, but needed a power-play goal with just over a minute and a half remaining to push things in their favour.
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Hannah Miller was camped netside with Toronto on the power play and Hillary Knight in the penalty box after a dangerous boarding penalty left Renata Fast slow to get up. Miller was Janey on the Spot as a Daryl Watts rebound bounced directly to her and she made no mistake hitting the wide open net.
Emma Maltais sealed it with an empty netter seconds later.
Boston struck first in the game on the power play. With Maggie Connors off for a tripping minor, Boston’s big line of Knight, Alina Muller and Hannah Bilka converted very quickly with Knight taking a pass in the slot from Megan Keller and ripping one past Toronto goaltender Kristin Campbell on her low glove side.
Toronto gave up just six power-play goals all of last season for an almost 92% success rate on the kill.
Playing in Coca-Cola Coliseum, their new home which provides almost triple the number of seats they had at the Mattamy Athletic Centre last season, the Sceptres were cheered on by a near sellout crowd of 8,089.
Boston’s physical play gave that crowd plenty of chances to get vocal. Four different Sceptres during the game – Noemi Neubauerova, Emma Maltais, Izzy Daniel and in the dying minutes Fast – all went down hard in the game and either stayed down or waited for a whistle before making their way to the bench.
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After the game, head coach Troy Ryan said he had checked on all his banged up players and none looked like they had sustained anything that would hold them back going forward.
Fast, in fact, was back on the ice for the power play and wound up assisting on Miller’s game winner.
Next up for Toronto is a road trip to Ottawa where they will take on the Charge on Tuesday night with a 7 p.m. puck drop.
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