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Behind the Glass: Spooner hits the century mark

Spooner’s 100th point in the CWHL, Daoust’s injury, the D’Oench factor, and more

It’s time for another installment of Behind the Glass — our weekly column collecting stories, stats, trends, and thoughts from the world of professional women’s hockey.

  • Miye D’Oench told Corey Masisak of The Athletic that this will be her last season playing NWHL hockey. After this season she has plans to go to law school.
  • After Sunday’s game, D’Oench told The Ice Garden that she thinks the Riveters’ impressive record with her in the lineup is “dumb luck” and nothing more. With that being said, the Riveters haven’t lost a regular season or playoff game with D’Oench in the lineup since March 17, 2017.
  • Audra Richards’ hat trick against the Whale has tied her with Buffalo Beauts’ forward Maddie Elia for the goal lead (6). Richards now has six goals in her last five games, but Elia and the Beauts have two games in hand.
  • After the game, Connecticut Whale head coach Ryan Equale admitted that blocking shots is a big source of pride for his team. In their narrow victory over the Connecticut Whale, the Riveters got less than 30 percent of the shots that they attempted at 5-on-5 on the Whale’s net. The Whale, on the other hand, got nearly 60 percent of their 5-on-5 shot attempts through to Kimberly Sass.
  • Equale also told The Ice Garden how he and his team approach shootouts after Sunday’s shootout loss:/

“Going into the game we have a list of every situation [and] who we want out there. With that said, the game’s going to develop the way it’s going to develop. So, if someone’s having a good offensive game obviously they may get bumped up on the list if they’re not already there. In this case, we had Laura Brennan on the bench with us, who’s one of our goalies and our goalie coach. So, she has a much better sense of who the tough forwards are on the breakaways. So [Cydney Roesler] and I just gave the Laura the responsibility to choose. So maybe we’ll fire her? Just kidding! She did a great job.”

  • In just four games this season Katerina Mrázová has already matched the goal tallies by the Whale’s highest-scoring players from last year (Kelly Babstock and Emily Fluke). On Sunday, Mrázová became the first player since Haley Skarupa to score a power play goal and a shorthanded goal in the same game. Skarupa accomplished that feat on Jan. 27, 2017.
  • In a recent New York Times article, Kendall Coyne Schofield revealed that she is making $7,000 this year to play for the Minnesota Whitecaps. Before Coyne Schofield, the last NWHL player who revealed her individual salary was Tatiana Rafter — she made $5,400 last season playing for the Riveters.
  • Coyne Schofield is one of 13 current NWHL players who was named to Team USA’s winter camp roster. The Connecticut Whale are the only team in the league without a member of the U.S. women’s national team on its roster. The CWHL’s Alex Carpenter, who hasn’t been with Team USA since being cut from the Olympic roster, was also named to the team.
  • The Buffalo Beauts are playing Team Russia in a four-game exhibition series in southern Ontario. This marks the third straight year that Team Russia has crossed sticks with teams in the NWHL.
  • W. Graeme Roustan, the CWHL’s “single biggest financial ... contributor,” is no longer financially supporting the league. Per Roustan’s letter, it appears the CWHL’s lack of transparency was a serious issue./

As a governance accredited professional, I believe transparency by a non-profit to ALL of its Members is the cornerstone of best practices in corporate governance and without it, misappropriation and misdeeds are more possible within any organization.

  • The Calgary Inferno swept Les Canadiennes de Montréal over the weekend, making them the top team in the CWHL. Calgary is now riding a nine-game winning streak.
  • Natalie Spooner registered her 100th point in the CWHL and had two goals and two assists in the Toronto Furies’ weekend series against the Markham Thunder. Spooner is just the 21st woman to eclipse the century mark in points in the CWHL’s 11-year history. She’s now tied with Sommer West for 13th all-time in goals scored./
  • Montréal’s Ann-Sophie Bettez is now just three points behind recent HHOF inductee Jayna Hefford’s 234 CWHL career points in 128 games. Hefford is currently third all-time in points, behind Noémie Marin and Caroline Ouellette.
  • Mélodie Daoust will be out six to nine weeks with a knee injury. Obviously, that’s a huge blow for Les Canadiennes, who will continue to have Ouellette behind the bench following Dany Brunet’s resignation./
  • Toronto’s Renata Fast has been served two misconduct penalties this season, including one for boarding on Nov. 25 against the Thunder. Fast now has as many penalty minutes in 11 games this season as she did in 22 games in her rookie CWHL season in 2017–18. She’s currently the CWHL’s most penalized player.
  • Jenni Hiirikoski and Sydney Morin are the only two defenders in the SDHL with 10 or more goals. Hiirikoski leads all defenders in points, with 33 in just 18 games, but Morin leads all SDHL defenders with her 11 goals in 20 games.
  • HK Tornado’s Anna Shokhina has 57 points in 24 games still has 12 games left in the season. Shokhina has had two 81-point seasons for Tornado. She’s on pace for around 85 points this season and is the clear favorite to finish the year as the top-scoring player in Russia./

Behind the Glass: Whale, here we go

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