SDHL

Behind the Glass: Thunstrom scores 16, Toko’s big week

Allie Thunstrom sets an NWHL record

Behind the Glass is our weekly column collecting stories, stats, trends, and thoughts from the world of professional women’s hockey.

NWHL

Riveters rookie forward Tatiana Shatalova scored an unassisted game-tying goal against the Boston Pride on Monday afternoon. She now has two goals and eight assists in 16 games this season. Since scoring a game-winning shootout goal against the Whitecaps on Dec. 14, Shatalova has nine points in her last six games. /

On Jan. 19, Amanda Leveille of the Minnesota Whitecaps earned her third shutout of the season tying Brittany Ott’s record for the most shutouts in a single NWHL season. On Jan. 18, Leveille earned her 11th win of the 2019-20 season making her the first goaltending to win 11 games in three consecutive seasons.
Janine Weber picked up her first point as a member of the Connecticut Whale on Jan. 18. Weber tallied a secondary assist on Emma Vlasic’s second period goal in the Whale’s 6-1 loss. Weber’s next point will be the 40th of her NWHL career.
Veteran winger Allie Thunstrom has taken over the NWHL’s goal-scoring race thanks to a four-goal weekend against the Whale. Thunstrom has six goals in her last four games. Thunstrom has 16 goals in 18 games this season, which is a single-season record in the NWHL./

Kateřina Mrázová scored two goals and picked up a primary assist in Brynäs’ win over Leksand on Jan. 17. Mrázová picked up two more assists — both secondary — on Jan. 22. The Czech forward is fourth in the SDHL in scoring with 44 points in 31 games played.
Haruka Toko scored three goals and picked up two primary assists in two games for Linköping over the weekend. Toko’s biggest play of the year is likely the game-winner she scored in overtime against Göteborg on Jan. 18. She is now tied for second on Linköping in scoring (17 points) with Saana Valkama.
Just 32 seconds into overtime, Olivia Carlsson scored the game-winning goal for MODO in their game against SDE on Jan. 18. Carlsson’s shot was the 66th of the game and snapped a shutout for Lindsey Post who made 42 saves in the game. Carlsson scored again for MODO on Jan. 19 in their 4-1 loss at the hands of AIK.
Luleå Hockey/MSSK (27 goals) is closing the gap on Brynäs’ league lead in power play goals (29). Luleå’s power play struck twice against SDE on Sunday to improve their success rate to an SDHL-best 24.77 percent. Brynäs has had 14 more power play opportunities and has a 23.58 power play./

Some fuel was added to one of the newest rivalries in women’s hockey last weekend. The Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays and Agidel Ufa split their two-game series, with Agidel taking the second game by a score of 4-1. Megan Bozek scored goals in both games for Shenzhen. She now has 10 points — four of which are goals — in nine games.
Polina Bolgareva, 20, scored just 36 seconds into overtime on Jan. 19th’s game between SKIF and Dynamo St. Petersburg. She now has 13 goals in 23 games for Dynamo St. Petersburg. If Bolgareva scores six more points this season, she will finally match her production from her rookie season in 2016-17 season with SKIF.
All-Star forward Hayley Williams scored her 10th goal of the season for SK Gorny on Jan. 19 against Biryusa. She has now matched her goal and point total from SK Gorny from the 2018-19 season in 12 fewer games. This season, she has won 66.26 percent of her faceoffs.
SKIF forward Landysh Falyakhova has scored two goals and two assists since returning from the All-Star break. Before the ZhHL’s All-Star Break, Falyakhova had scored in one of her last seven games. She leads SKIF in goals (10) and assists (13) and is responsible for 16.87 percent of the team’s shots on goal this year (125)./

All data courtesy of NWHL.zone, sdhl.se, EliteProspects.com, whl.khl.ru, or the author’s own tracking.

Disclosure: the author of this piece is currently employed by the NWHL.