Takeaways: Müller Leads Fleet to 4-1 Victory over Sceptres

After a mammoth road trip, the Boston Fleet returned to the Tsongas Center for the first time in 36 days last night, where they defeated the Toronto Sceptres 4-1 on the back of a three-point night from Alina Müller.

Goal Rundown

Just 4:27 into the game, Hannah Brandt batted the puck out of the air by the blueline and sucked Toronto’s attention toward her while she carried it down past the goal line. She then slid a nice pass over to Alina Müller, who had snuck into the slot and quickly fired home her first of the season to open the scoring.

There were no clips of the Fleet’s second and third goals online at the time of submission, but Emily Brown made it 2-0 Boston after Müller fed her a slick behind-the-back feed with just over two minutes to go in the opening frame. Then, Shay Maloney fooled Kristen Campbell with a fluttering shot just 58 seconds into the third period.

Toronto finally got on the board at 14:50 of the third period after Kali Flanagan made a nice pass to Blayre Turnbull, who beat Aerin Frankel with a one-touch backhand shot.

Finally, Megan Keller capped off the scoring when she lobbed a puck off a Toronto stick and into the empty net with just 14 seconds remaining.

In goal, Frankel made 35 saves for the win, while Campbell made 18 in the loss.

Takeaways

1. Müller comes alive.

After finally notching her first point of the season with a secondary assist last game (the Fleet’s tenth of the season), Müller started making up for lost time last night. She tallied a goal and two primary assists and looked like she was playing a lot looser and thinking less (in a good way). A player as skilled as Müller was not going to stay quiet forever, and now the Fleet desperately need her to go on a roll.

“It feels good [to get the goal],” Müller said after the game. “It took a little longer than I hoped it would, obviously, but I got a lot of support from my teammates, from the coaches, just staying patient and in the end I just want to help the team win games.”

2. Frankel shines bright again.

Yet again, Aerin Frankel was a huge part of how the Fleet pulled off a win. She made numerous Grade-A saves to keep the Fleet in it while the Sceptres swarmed. Without her brilliance, it’s not hard to imagine the Sceptres at least tying things up in the second period, and then you’re probably looking at a very different outcome. The Fleet continue to owe much of their success to her.

3. Sustaining effort for the whole game is still a problem.

The Fleet played perhaps their best period of the season in the opening frame but then came crashing down in the second period. They didn’t land a shot until 10:52 and managed none at 5v5, while Toronto tallied 13 shots in the frame. Considering how strong the Fleet’s first period was, Toronto was expected to push back in the second, but the Fleet can't fall off that dramatically for a whole period.

“I think we kind of weathered the storm a little bit," Boston head coach Courtney Kessel said after the game. "The game could have gone the other way real quickly there in the second. Thankfully, we have the best goalie in the league to back us up...I just think we lost some battles in that period, but happy with our response in the third.”

4. At long last, they returned home and got a regulation win. Now, they'll face a big test on Sunday.

After a 36-day, six-game gap, the Fleet finally returned home to the Tsongas Center and secured their first regulation win since their last game there on December 17. The Sceptres are chasing the Fleet in the standings and had already beaten them twice in regulation, so it’s crucial that the Fleet pulled off a regulation win. They still sit in fifth place, but they’re just one point behind New York (who has a game in hand) and two points back of Ottawa (who they have a game in hand over) while sitting four ahead of Toronto. However, perhaps more importantly, they looked like a team that was refreshed following a 10-day break and might be able to go on a run to get back into the playoff picture. It was far from a perfect game, but they’ve repeatedly shown that they can weather storms (especially with Frankel in net), and for the second straight game, they got much-needed depth scoring (and this time some stars got on the board too). Now, they'll travel to Minnesota on Sunday with a chance to prove they can be consistent. The road has not been kind to them this season, but they also haven’t played a road game that wasn’t part of an absurdly long trip since their first two games. So, it will be a good opportunity for the Fleet to show what they're made of now against a strong Frost team that is finally getting healthy but has dropped two straight games in regulation.

The Fleet are back in action on Sunday when they travel to Minnesota to take on the Frost. Puck drop is set for 3 p.m. ET at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, MN, and you can watch the game on NESN, FanDuel Sports Network North, TSN, the PWHL Youtube Channel, and thepwhl.com.