Behind the Glass: Dempsey Takes Over

Jillian Dempsey has a big Saturday and Kendall Coyne Schofield has a bigger Sunday

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

NWHL

Jillian Dempsey scored two goals in the Boston Pride’s 4-2 win over the Riveters on Oct. 5. Thanks to that two-goal performance, Dempsey was the first player in NWHL history to score 30 goals and currently has a one-goal lead over Madison Packer for the all-time goal-scoring lead.
Packer had a goal of her own on Saturday, deflecting a point shot from Colleen Murphy to score the ninth power play goal of her career. She’s now level with Kaleigh Fratkin for second place in all-time power play points and leads all forwards in that category.
Lenka Čurmová made history as the first Slovakian player to score a goal in an NWHL regular season game in the Buffalo Beauts’ 3-1 win over the Connecticut Whale. Čurmová’s goal was scored on the power play, with MJ Pelletier and Corinne Buie picking up the assists on the first goal scored of the 2019-20 NWHL season./
Beauts goaltender Mariah Fujimagari stopped 29 of the 30 shots the Connecticut Whale sent her way on Saturday. Even more impressively, Fujimagari and the Beauts pitched a shutout against the Whale’s seven power play opportunities. Last season, the Maine alumna posted an .866 save percentage with the Worcester Blades in the CWHL.
The only player on the Whale who was able to beat Fujimagari on Saturday was Grace Klienbach. Klienbach had three shots on goal and a takeaway for Connecticut. Last season, she had a goal and a secondary assist in 13 games for the Whale./

Kendall Coyne Schofield scored the second hat trick of the PWHPA Dream Gap Tour for Team Stecklein on Sunday. She dropped her three goals in Team Stecklein’s 5-4 victory over Team Knight./

KENDALL COYNE WITH THE HAT TRICK! 5-3 Team Stecklein! #DreamGapTour pic.twitter.com/Hzxrqus4jd
— PWHPA (@PWHPA) October 6, 2019

Team Stecklein had the most dominant offense in the PWHPA’s second stop of the Dream Gap Tour with 11 goals in two games. For the time being, that is the new high-water mark for a PWHPA team during a weekend showcase./

Kennedy Marchment is now tied with Lara Stalder for the SDHL scoring lead. Marchment, 22, has five goals and eight assists in eight games for HV71. She was the second-highest scoring North American-born skater in the SDHL last season with 52 points in 36 games.
HV71’s Sidney Morin has an early scoring lead among SDHL defenders with 12 points in eight games. Morin, a member of Team USA, is also the league leader in power play points; she’s scored three goals and has notched three assists on HV71’s power play.
Czech goaltender Klara Peslarova stopped all 23 shots she faced from Leksands on Saturday. Through 303:42 of hockey, she’s posted a .934 save percentage for MODO — the highest percentage among goalies who have played at least 300 minutes.
Göteborg HC’s 18-year-old goaltender Frida Axell has earned both of her team’s wins this season and has a .939 save percentage in just under 180 minutes of hockey. She’s the youngest goalie to see action in the SDHL this season. Axell had an .815 save percentage last season with Göteborg./

Defender Liu Zhixin of the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays scored twice to power her team past HK Tornado on Saturday. Liu now has three goals on the season, which makes her the ZhHL’s top goal-scorer among defenders.
He Siye, 20, stopped all 30 shots she faced from Tornado on Saturday to earn her first-career ZhHL shutout. Through 120 minutes of hockey this season, He has allowed two goals — one of which was scored while Shenzhen was shorthanded.
Through the first eight games of the ZhHL season, Valeria Pavlova (Biryusa) and Olga Sosina (Agidel Ufa) lead the league with eight goals each. Pavlova is also leading the league in shots on goal (50), but Shenzhen’s Alex Carpenter has proven to be a higher-volume shooter with an average of 8.17 SOG/GP.
Valeria Tarakanova, 21, has posted a .933 save percentage and a 2.24 GAA through 428:39 of hockey to start the season. SKIF’s goalie of the present and future has played more minutes than any other goaltender in the ZhHL thus far this season. /

All data courtesy of nwhl.zone, whl.khl.ru, stats.swehockey.se, EliteProspects.com, and the author’s own tracking.

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