Takeaways: Fleet Drop Another Close Game to Frost in Overtime, 2-1

After a thrilling shootout win over the Montréal Victoire in Seattle on Sunday, the Boston Fleet returned to Minnesota to take on a heavily injured Frost team. They took it to overtime for the third straight game, but ultimately fell to the Frost, 2-1.

Goal Rundown

Hannah Bilka kept her hot streak going and opened the scoring for the Fleet just 3:40 into the game. Hilary Knight drew all of Maddie Rooney's attention to her before sending a pass over to a sneaking Bilka, who put a quick backhander past Rooney for her third goal of the season.

Shortly after, Shay Maloney thought she had made it 2-0 Boston. However, after a review, the goal was overturned because the referees determined Alina Müller interfered with Rooney before the goal.

Over halfway through the period, Emma Söderberg couldn't quite hang on to a Kelly Pannek shot, and Denisa Křížová picked it up and sniped it home to tie the game at one.

That was it for scoring in regulation. The next goal didn't come until 3:20 into overtime when Taylor Heise secured her team the extra point by sending a laser past Söderberg.

In goal, Söderberg made 24 saves in the loss, while Rooney turned aside 26 for the win.

Takeaways

1. Bilka has arrived.

Bilka has been solid all season, but she has really roared to life on this road trip, with three goals and two assists in the past five games. She's figuring out how to use her elite speed and playmaking ability to get results at this level. Bilka now sits second in rookie scoring with seven points, two behind New York’s Sarah Fillier. Her offensive emergence has been huge for the Fleet, and head coach Courtney Kessel is happy to see her building confidence.

“It’s really nice to see her settle in and play at this pace,” Kessel said after the game. “I think she’s one of the fastest players in this league and I think when she figures out how to utilize that speed she’s going to be such a threat every time she touches the ice so it’s nice to see her building some confidence here.”

2. Boston really struggles to keep Minnesota away from the front of the net.

Last week, I mentioned how Boston needed to clear Minnesota from the front of the net. That was the case again tonight. Minnesota is a gritty team that does a good job getting to the front of the net pretty much every game, but there has to be a way to box them out better. The first time these two faced off this season, the Fleet kept them to the outside a bit more, so it is possible. If they don't make the necessary adjustments before returning to Minnesota on January 26, they're probably looking at a similar result.

3. The Fleet started out crashing the net for rebounds, but couldn’t keep it up all game.

For most of the game, Maddie Rooney struggled to seal her rebounds. Through the first half, the Fleet pounced on many of them and got great scoring chances. However, as the game wore on, they stopped following up on their shots as heavily. Part of that can be chalked up to fatigue (a little more on that shortly), but with one more game left on this long road trip, they’ll need to find a way to dig deep and sustain solid offense for the full 60 minutes against a streaking Ottawa Charge team.

4. By the end, this looked like a game between two teams with a lot going on.

The Fleet started the game ok, but by the end of the second period, they looked like a team playing their third game in six days (all of which went to OT), with travel between each one. Similarly, the Frost looked like a heavily injured team that had been ill. They each had some looks here and there but in between, there wasn’t much going on. It’s a long season and every team is going to face adversity, so they need to roll with the punches. The Fleet can’t afford to keep leaving points on the table against teams they should be able to beat. However, all things considered, there isn’t much to get worked up over from this game. 

The Fleet return to action Saturday afternoon as they wrap up their road trip in Ottawa. Puck drop is set for 2 p.m. ET at TD Place, and you can find the game on NESN, CBC, the PWHL YouTube Channel, and thepwhl.com.