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Behind the Glass: the NWHL’s top shooting duos

Stories, stats, trends, and observations from the world of professional women’s hockey

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

  • Connecticut Whale star goaltender Meeri Räisänen left Sunday’s game with a lower-body injury after posting a .936 save percentage through 98:33 against the Whitecaps in the weekend series. Laura Brennan, who entered the game in relief of Räisänen, allowed seven goals on 18 shots. As per Alexis Pearson and Kelly Schultz — the Whitecaps’ broadcast team — Räisänen left the game with a bruised calf./
  • Thanks to her stellar play last weekend, Räisänen is now level with Katie Burt and Kimberly Sass for the fourth-best save percentage in the NWHL at .908. Her seven quality starts this season are good for second in the league, behind Amanda Leveille.
  • Kendall Coyne Schofield had her first multi-goal NWHL game on Sunday. The speedy Olympic gold medalist is averaging 7.0 shots per-game through 11 games this season. She has 28 more shots than the NWHL's current runner-up in shots on goal.
  • Coyne Schofield and Allie Thunstrom are the most trigger-happy duo in the NWHL, despite the fact that the former has missed three games this season. Coyne Schofield and Thunstrom have taken nearly 29 percent of the Whitecaps shots this year — the highest ratio of any duo in the league. After them, the duo that is responsible for the highest percentage of their team’s shots is Kateřina Mrázová and Michelle Löwenhielm of the Whale. Together, the two European forwards are responsible for 28.2 percent of Connecticut’s shots./
  • Julie Friend posted an 18-save shutout against the Whale in her first NWHL start on Sunday. Now that the Whitecaps have had two goalies start, Katie Burt and Räisänen are the only goaltenders to start in all of their teams games this season.
  • Prior to the 2018-19 season, there were nine shutouts in NWHL history. With Friend’s clean slate on Sunday, there have now been 17 shutouts in NWHL history recorded by eight different goaltenders.
  • The Whale went 0-for-6 on the power play against the Whitecaps in their weekend series —that’s not good. They also allowed two shorthanded goals on their four power plays in Sunday’s game — that’s much worse.
  • Jonna Curtis piled up four points and six penalty minutes against the Whale on Sunday. She’s now tied with Hayley Scamurra for the lead league in scoring with 17 points, but the Beauts’ star has three games in hand on Curtis.
  • Amanda Boulier now has five goals this season with the Whitecaps — which ties her with Megan Bozek, Kelsey Koelzer, Gigi Marvin and Kaleigh Fratkin for the most goals in a single NWHL season by a defender. /
  • It was confirmed yesterday that the Boston Pride have released former Blades forward Taylor Wasylk. Wasylk, 26, never appeared in a game this season with the Pride. The Whitecaps are the only NWHL tea that has not had a player retire or leave the team after being released this season.
  • Because of lackluster accommodations for the media covering the 2019 CWHL All-Star Weekend, the Women’s Hockey Media Association released a statement via Twitter. On Tuesday, CWHL All-Star captain Liz Knox shared her own two cents about some of the concerns raised by the WHMA and others./
  • Rachel Llanes was unable to participate in the 2019 CWHL All-Star Game because of an injury. Her Shenzhen teammate Cayley Mercer replaced her in the All-Star Game. Mercer had 19 points in 21 games at the All-Star break.
  • Calgary Inferno superstar Brianne Jenner absolutely went off in Toronto. She scored three goals in the 2019 CWHL All-Star Game, including two-straight goals in the second period./
  • Michelle Ng broke her 13-game pointless streak when she picked up the sole assist on Stephanie Anderson’s first period goal against the Calgary Inferno on Tuesday night. It was Ng’s second point of the season for the Shenzhen KRS Vanke Rays. Last season, with the Boston Blades, she had nine points in 20 games.
  • Rebecca Johnston recorded her 10th multi-point game of the season on Tuesday by picking up two assists. The 29 year-old Olympian is now just five points shy of matching her single-season high for points in a season, which she set back in 2014-15. She’s also moved into second place in scoring in the CWHL this year.
  • With her win against Shenzhen, Alex Rigsby now has wins in her last six-straight starts for the Inferno. The American netminder now trails Emerance Maschmeyer by just one victory for the league lead. This year, Rigsby has posted a save percentage below .900 just once — on Jan. 6 in Markham.
  • Michelle Karvinen’s penalty shot goal on Jan. 23 was her 24th goal of the 2018-19 season. Karvinen is tied with Michaela Cava for the league lead in scoring in the SDHL, but she’s piled up her 55 points in seven fewer games than Cava.
  • At the age of 45, Riikka Sallinen leads the SDHL in total faceoffs taken this season with 695. Amazingly, she’s won 60.29 percent of the draws she’s taken for HV71 this year. She’s also leading her team in assists and points. Sanni Hakala, who is second on HV71 in scoring this year with 37 points, is less than half the age of the veteran center.
  • Olga Sosina’s nine-game point scoring streak — which amounted to 21 points in nine games — came to an end on Jan. 22 against SKIF. The reigning ZHL MVP has failed to put up points in back-to-back games just once this season for Agidel Ufa. Sosina is second in the league in scoring with 59 points in 33 games./

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