RECAP: Boston's Lack of Scoring Costs Them Another Game

Boston fought until the end and managed to get a point, but ultimately dropped their third-straight game against New York, 2-1 (OT).

The first period featured a ton of back-and-forth action. New York came out a bit stronger, but Boston did a fair job of limiting their grade-A chances while they were still getting their legs under them.

New York’s best chance of the period came nearly eight minutes in, but Aerin Frankel came up with a huge poke stop to keep the game even.

Shortly after, Boston got their first power play, as Kayla Vespa was called for hooking at 8:31 of the period. Boston got a few shots on the power play, but none were grade-A opportunities.

Boston picked up the pace significantly following the power play, but ultimately, New York struck first. Following a huge scrum in front of the net, Emma Woods poked one past Frankel to give New York the lead at 14:59 of the first period. The play was reviewed for goalie interference, but it was ruled a good goal. Jamie Bourbonnais and Madison Packer got the assists. The secondary assist was Packer’s first PWHL point.

The first period ended with shots even at eight, but New York leading 1-0. 

Just 25 seconds into the second period, Boston got their first penalty of the night, as Kaleigh Fratkin was called for holding. However, it may as well have been a Boston power play as aggressive as their penalty kill was. They got the better chances, but could not break Schroeder.

After the game, Boston head coach Courtney Kessel was asked whether being aggressive on the penalty kill was something they’d been working on in practice.

“I think, if the turnover happens quite quickly in your shift, green light to skate the puck up,” said Kessel. “That’s what we have the jailbreak rule for. But I think, once you get 15-20 seconds into your shift, you should be getting it down and getting off for a change and getting some fresh legs on.

Following the penalty kill, Boston surged. They got a lot of great chances, but Schroeder was up to the task. However, the first chance New York got following the surge forced Frankel to make one of her best saves of the night to keep the deficit at 1.

A few minutes later, Loren Gabel and Abby Roque were part of a big scrum in front of Frankel, and both got called for roughing at 12:13. 

Finally, Frankel made another save-of-the-game candidate with just 44.5 seconds left on the clock.

The second period ended with Boston outshooting New York 22-15, but still trailing 1-0. They got plenty of chances, but Schroeder was up to the task. This period also featured some extra nasty than we’ve been seeing, as a rivalry buds between these two.

Not much notable happened for the first half of the third period. Frankel made a huge glove save about nine minutes in, but other than that, it was a quiet start.

Taylor Girard was called for high-sticking at 12:23, so Boston headed to the PK. Right off the bat, Boston nearly got another jailbreak goal, and the goal horn even sounded. There ended up being a review of the play nearly two minutes later, which revealed that Ella Shelton somehow managed to keep it out for New York.

Boston then pulled Frankel with about 1:40 remaining, and that’s when they finally broke through. At 18:56, Megan Keller sniped one home unassisted to tie the game at one.

Boston then poured it on for the next minute and nearly managed to win it. But, the third ended with the score tied at 1 despite Boston leading 32-21 in shots, so to overtime we went.

Just about a minute into overtime, Frankel made yet another highlight-reel save to keep the play going. But unfortunately, at 2:28, New York managed to beat her to take home the extra point. Boston’s skaters got stuck out there for too long, and Alex Carpenter fired off a shot that deflected off Hilary Knight’s stick and past Frankel. Jamie Bourbonnais and Emma Woods assisted on the goal. The final shots were 35-24 Boston.

Overall, this was an excellent game for both teams. It was fast, physical, highly defensive, and featured a goaltending showdown. However, Boston continues to be snakebitten offensively. They did a much better job of getting better shots today, but Corinne Schroeder continued her run as chief brick wall of the PWHL.

After the game, Gigi Marvin and Kessel gave their thoughts on the team’s performance.

“I thought we played really well,” said Marvin. “We put a lot of shots on net, we had a lot of opportunities to be able to score, and ultimately that’s what you want [from] your team, to be able to put yourself in a position to win, create a lot of opportunities net front, win battles, and unfortunately at the end wasn’t able to come through with the W.”

Meanwhile, there was a little more exasperation in Kessel’s assessment, as a lack of scoring plagued her team yet again.

“Again, so many chances, not enough goals,” said Kessel. “I thought our second period was great. Really happy to see Keller score there with a minute left in the game, but we’ve gotta find ways to put games away.”

Kessel also gave some insight as to where her team can be better.

“I think our gap can be a little bit better defensively, for sure,” said Kessel. “That’s [our] number one priority heading into next week. But, we have all these offensive players and the ball’s gotta drop at some point. You can’t have this much talent and not be putting up points.”