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Behind the Glass: Moose wins it in OT and Brand, Curtis, Sosina, and Nieminen all get hatties

That’s a lot of hats

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

NWHL

  • There’s clearly a lot of chemistry between Riveters rookies Mallory Rushton and Kendall Cornine. Rushton has earned the primary assist on all three of Cornine’s goals this season — two at even strength and one on the power play. The two played together at RIT before signing with the Riveters ahead of the 2019-20 season./
  • Through three games this season, Riveters defender and alternate captain Rebecca Morse has two goals and an assist. Her most recent goal came in overtime against the Minnesota Whitecaps to give the Rivs their first win of the 2019-20 season and their first-ever victory over the defending Isobel Cup champions. Prior to this season, Morse had four career points in 30 regular season games. /
  • Beauts forward Brooke Stacey scored the third penalty shot in NWHL regular season history on Sat., Oct. 12 against fellow rookie Lovisa Selander. Stacey leads the Beauts in primary points thus far this season with three goals and a primary assist in three games./
  • Boston Pride veteran defender Kaleigh Fratkin came into the 2019-20 season with a scoring rate of 0.59 Pts/GP. This season, she’s picked up four points — all assists — in three games and is now tied with Courtney Burke as the NWHL’s all-time leading scorer on the power play among defenders. She finished Sunday’s 8-1 win over the Buffalo Beauts with a +3 5-on-5 on-ice goal differential.
  • Thanks to her hat trick on Sunday, McKenna Brand is the NWHL’s leading goal scorer with four goals in her first three games of the season. Brand had six goals and 11 assists in 16 games last year with the Pride.
  • Jonna Curtis had a hat trick of her own (and a primary assist) in Minnesota’s 9-2 rout of the Riveters on Saturday. Curtis had eight goals in 16 games last season and led the Whitecaps in goals and scoring.
  • Along with Brand, Whitecaps speedster Allie Thunstrom is one of seven skaters who have scored both at even strength and on the power play through the first two weeks of the NWHL season. Thus far, Thunstrom has 11 SOG, two goals, and a primary assist for Minnesota./

SDHL

  • Goaltender Agnes Åker earned her first shutout with her new club Brynäs on Oct. 11 by stopping 38 shots from SDE. Åker, 22, has a .928 save percentage in 303:54 of ice time this season. She spent each of the previous three seasons with Djurgården.
  • Petra Nieminen scored a natural hat trick in the third period on Oct. 11 in Luleå’s game against Djurgården, but DIF’s Madelen Haug Hansen won the game and spoiled the spirited comeback. Nieminen now has eight goals and six assists in nine games this year and is her team’s leading scorer.
  • Superstar defender Jenni Hiirikoski is still searching for her first goal of the 2019-20 season. Hiirikoski has eight assists in eight games for Luleå this year and is tied for second in scoring among SDHL defenders with HV71’s Jessica Healey.
  • Leksand signed Canadian forward Brooke Boquist on Oct. 16. Boquist, 22, had 11 goals in 17 games for MODO last season and scored a combined 32 goals in her junior and senior seasons at Providence College. /
  • In 10 games, HV71 has posted a record of 9-0-1 and has a firm lead in the standings with 28 points. Luleå, the SDHL’s reigning champions, have stumbled out of the gate with a record of 4-3-2 and have scored just 23 goals compared to HV71’s 46. /

ZhHL

  • Agidel Ufa’s Olga Sosina scored a natural hat trick in a 3-0 win over the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays on Oct. 14. Sosina’s linemate Alena Mills had assists on all three of her goals — two of which were primary. /
  • After a two-point performance in HK Tornado’s 2-0 win over SKSO on Oct. 14, Anna Shokhina scored a goal and picked up four assists — three of which were primary — in Tornado’s 6-0 roasting of SKSO a day later. Thanks to that five-point game, Shokhina is now tied for second in the ZhHL scoring race (14) with Alex Carpenter and Fanuza Kadirova.
  • Yelena Mezentseva had a four-point game for Biryusa in their statement 7-5 win over Dynamo St. Petersburg on Tuesday. Mezentseva, 18, was an alternate captain on Russia’s U-18 team last year and notched seven points in 34 games last season in the ZhHL with Biryusa.
  • SK Gorny goaltender Yulia Artyomova, 20, currently leads the league in wins (6). Through 539:01 of hockey, she’s posted a .914 Sv% and has earned two shutouts. Last season, Artyomova, had an .889 Sv% and earned nine wins in 27 appearances with SK Gorny./

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.

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