Takeaways: Fleet Start Six-Game Road Trip With 4-2 Loss to Sceptres

The Boston Fleet started their long road trip on a sour note last night with a 4-2 loss to the Toronto Sceptres. This ended the Fleet’s win streak at two games while halting the Sceptres' skid at four. The Sceptres also won the first game of the season series with a 3-1 win back on November 30. 

Goal Rundown

Blayre Turnbull snuck one past Aerin Frankel on the power play to open the scoring in the first period. Renata Fast picked up the secondary assist to extend her season-opening point streak to six games.

Jessica Kondas doubled the Sceptres' lead early in the second period.

Late in the second, Loren Gabel whiffed on a power play shot but made no mistake on her second attempt and sent it past Raygan Kirk to get her team on the board.

Next, Emma Woods sent a beautiful shot past Frankel with just over 5:40 remaining in the game.

The Fleet aggressively pulled Frankel with 4:39 remaining, but a bad turnover led to a Kali Flanagan empty-netter not quite 90 seconds later.

Finally, the Fleet got a late power play, and Hannah Bilka tallied her first PWHL goal. The goal was initially waved off for goaltender interference, but that call was overturned following a challenge from the Fleet. A clip of the play starts at 0:55 of the league's recap. Hilary Knight picked up the primary assist to extend her season-opening point streak to five games.

In goal, both netminders made 26 saves. For Kirk, it was her first PWHL win in her second consecutive start. 

Takeaways

1. Important players got on the board.

It’s early in the season so it’s not a shock to see players still getting on the board for the first time, but both teams should be encouraged by who showed up on the scoresheet tonight. Five players tallied their first goals of the season while three others picked up their first assists. For the Fleet, Gabel’s power-play goal was her first point since February 21 (notably, a shoulder injury on March 16 caused her to miss nearly two months last season). Gabel has not found her offensive groove in the PWHL but was a prolific scorer in past leagues, and if she can unlock any of that previous scoring touch, it will be huge for the Fleet. Lexie Adzija also picked up her first point of the season with an assist on Gabel’s goal. Finally, Hannah Bilka notched her first PWHL goal after picking up two assists in her first four games. It's not the most memorable first goal, but Bilka has been all around the net in her first five games so this should be the first of many.

For the Sceptres, Turnbull and Flanagan picked up their first goals of the season while Jessie Compher got her first assist. Compher had a slow offensive season last year but has been much better in this one, with two goals and an assist through six games. Also, 2024 first-rounder Julia Gosling finally picked up her first PWHL points with two assists, while Kondas, a reserve player, scored her first PWHL goal in her first game after signing a 10-day SPA contract earlier in the day. Kondas was also a reserve for Toronto last season but never got the call to join the big club, so it's nice to see that kind of dedication pay off.

2. The Fleet reverted to their previous offensive struggles.

For most of the game, you could tell it was the first one back from a break for these clubs. Neither could string together many passes in a row and were overall sloppy with the puck, which made it difficult to generate sustained offense. However, this issue was more glaring for the Fleet.

"I think it looked like we had a long break," Boston head coach Courtney Kessel said in the postgame press conference. "I think no attention to detail [and] we just looked tired frankly."

They still had some good looks and high-danger shots, but there were too many one-and-done chances which is not a good way to score in this league. While some of this is expected when returning from breaks, the Fleet needed to shake off the rust faster and it can't continue next game.

3. The Fleet’s discipline is a problem yet again.

Stop me if you’ve heard this before: the Fleet have a discipline problem. The Sceptres took four penalties to the Fleet’s three, which is the first time this season the Fleet went to the box less than their opponent, but all three of the Fleet’s penalties came in a six-minute span in the first period. It killed any ounce of momentum they had, especially after the Sceptres scored on the third one. It’s good that they cleaned it up for the rest of the game, but the penalty-filled periods must stop. It's hard to win when you keep giving away momentum and have to play catch-up for the rest of the game.

The Fleet will be back in action Monday night when they travel to Montréal to take on the Victoire. Puck drop is set for 7 p.m. ET at Place Bell, and you can find the game on NESN, TSN, the PWHL’s YouTube channel, and thepwhl.com.