With Justin Trudeau in crowd, Boston edges Ottawa in PWHL action

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Boston 3, Ottawa 2

Jamie Lee Rattray couldn’t have asked for a much better homecoming.

Making her return to the nation’s capital, with her parents (and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau) in the crowd at The Arena at TD Place, Rattray scored a first-period goal to help Boston get past Ottawa 3-2

Defensive mistakes were the difference. Ottawa mostly played well enough (outshooting Boston 39-31, including 32 in the final two periods), but those mistakes …

“It wasn’t a great start,” said Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod. “It’s been a couple of games in a row. We’ll keep working on that. But the resiliency is incredible. We shifted the game pretty nicely for two periods and showed what we can do.”

Rattray, who played for the Kanata Minor Hockey Association and the Ottawa Lady Senators program, is an alternate captain for Boston’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team. At Clarkson University, she won a national championship and the prestigious Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award in 2014. She has also represented Canada and won medals at six IIHF Women’s World Championships and gold at the 2022 Olympics. She was part of Canada’s National Women’s Team that competed in the Rivalry Series game at TD Place in 2021. 

“This building is super fun,” said Rattray. “As a kid, I used to come here and watch 67’s games all the time. To score the first goal here is pretty special. I think I screamed pretty loud to get the monkey off the back.”

Fourteen seconds after Katerina Mrazova was penalized for roughing, Boston opened the scoring when an Alina Muller wristshot found the net through heavy traffic, beating Ottawa goalie Sandra Abstreiter, making her first start of the season, 8:38 into the game.

After a couple of defensive miscues, Ottawa gave up another goal with 2:23 left in the first period, with Rattray scoring on a pass across the top of the goal crease. Abstreiter, who was injured on the play, was replaced by Emerance Maschmeyer.

Ottawa had several good opportunities in the second period and finally beat Boston goalie Aerin Frankel with 4:26 left when Kristin Della Rovere redirected a Natalie Snodgrass pass into the net.

Ottawa tied the game with a power-play goal 3:46 into the third period when Lexie Adzija knocked in a rebound.

A huge mistake by Ottawa in its end, an errant pass, led to Boston’s game-winning goal — by Theresa Schafzahl — with 52 seconds left.

Ottawa, which plays Saturday in Montreal, and Boston were supposed to play Jan. 8 in Boston, but the game was postponed due to inclement weather and rescheduled for Feb. 19.

“It’s three big points. I’m not quite sure we deserved it, but we’ll take them,” said Boston coach Courtney Kessel. “Our first period was great, then Ottawa outplayed us. They were hungrier, they were jumping on loose pucks.”

Ottawa was coming off Tuesday’s 3-1 win over Toronto, its first victory on home ice after losing twice in overtime.