Ottawa convincingly defeated Toronto with a final score of 5-1 last weekend despite an 11-day layoff for Ottawa, who showed no signs of rust.
Indeed, the way Ottawa outplayed Toronto was summed up by a second-period stretch pass by goalie Emerance Maschmeyer to forward Natalie Snodgrass and got Ottawa on the board for the fourth time.
It was a one-sided affair where Ottawa controlled the puck for most of the game and put their stamp on the contest immediately after the first drop of the puck.
Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod wasn’t worried about her team being able to compete at a high level, regardless of not playing a game for 11 days. She said, “they’re pro athletes we don’t worry about rust.”
This was only Ottawa’s second game of the season and their first win of the season. “I’m really proud of our group,” MacLeod said.
Blayre Turnbull and Brianne Jenner lineup for a face-off in Ottawa's zone. Photo credit: Andre Leal
After 10 minutes of Ottawa owning the puck, the scoring opened up around the mid-way mark of the first period, thanks to a five-on-three power-play.
Toronto committed back-to-back minors, Jesse Compher for holding the stick and just 18 seconds later Captain Blayre Turnbull was called for roughing.
Ottawa capitalized on both power-play opportunities and took a 2-0 lead.
The bleeding didn’t stop there, with 16 seconds remaining in the first, Daryl Watts extended Ottawa’s lead to three.
Toronto was due for a response in their second home game of the season after dropping their home opener 4-0 against New York.
In the first intermission, Toronto’s head coach, Troy Ryan, was looking to lift the spirits of his team.
The message was, “there’s a lot of game left and it was no time to throw in the towel,” Turnbull said.
In addition to Coach Ryan’s supportive intermission speech, he made a few tactical changes to boost the team heading into the second.
PWHL Toronto head coach, Troy Ryan faces the media after a 5-1 loss to Ottawa. Photo credit: Andre Leal
They made a goaltending change, Erica Howe came in for Kristen Campbell and the forward lines were juggled a bit.
Samantha Cogan was put on the left wing of Emma Maltais and Natalie Spooner
The message and changes by Ryan were effective because Natalie Spooner potted one home less than two minutes into the third.
It was Spooner’s second of the season and more importantly, it was the first goal where the home fans could celebrate.
“Feels good to get that one for my team, I wish it could’ve snowballed into a few more,” Spooner said.
From that point on, the line of Cogan, Maltais and Spooner drove all the offence for Toronto.
“When lines change like that, you just got to run with it. I wished we popped some more but I’m happy with how we played the rest of the game,” Maltais said.
Toronto’s game was summed up with a bad line change as Ottawa’s goaltender, Emerance Maschmeyer was able to play a long stretch pass through the middle of the ice and was awarded the primary assist on the goal to make it 4-1.
As a result, Ryan called a timeout in hopes of calming his team down.
Toronto out-shot Ottawa in that second period and brought some life into the crowd and their game.
However, the score remained 4-1 heading into the third period.
With her second of the game, Gabbie Hughes provided the dagger that put Ottawa up 5-1 just after the halfway point of the third.
For the majority of that third period, Toronto was suffocated in their zone by Ottawa’s puck possession and was never able to generate any high-danger scoring opportunities for the rest of the game.
After this game, Toronto is 1-0-3-0 and is yet to win at home.