2021 NWHL Season Thread

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Buffalo's 4th-season defender Lisa Chesson, in her first game played in The Bubble, scores a PP goal from close in with less than 4 minutes left in the 3rd to make the socre 2-1.

 

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Beauts rookie goalie Carly Jackson ("CJ") stops 36 of 37 shots, and Buffalo earns their first Bubble victory with a 2-1 win over Boston. CJ now has a 0.940 SV% for the condensed season, stopping 158 of 168 shots against over 4 games. BUF now leads the winless Pride 1-0 in their best-of-3 play-in mini-series, with Game #2 scheduled for Sunday, Jan. 31st @ 3:00 PM EST.

ETA: The League is quick on the draw with their game summary ...

“Say Cheese” - Beauts take Game 1 against Pride

 

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2nd Bubble Match for the Six & the Caps. First meeting was last Sunday, a 6-5 shootout victory for Minnesota after Toronto led 5-1 late in the 2nd period. TOR needs to make sure that kinda turnaround doesn't happen tonight.

 

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Toronto Six playing without forwards Brooke Boquist (2G, 2A) & Emma Woods (4A) tonight, as well as missing defender Kristen Barbara. Other ladies must step up, as they look for a victory against the unbeaten Minnesota Whitecaps.

 

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Toronto takes a 1-0 lead in the 1st period, on a quick in-and-out PP goal by Mikyla Grant-Mentis (her third of the condensed season). And the Whitecaps earn a second minor penalty just over a minute later, but they cannot get another puck past MIN goalie Amanda Leveille.

 

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End of 1, MIN 0 - TOR 1. Both teams started playing with high energy after about the first five minutes. The Six dominated in SOG total, and looked more organized on D.

 

[mk80]

Although I don't think that's really what happened with the Riveters. I think they were wracked by the barstool controversy and internal strife drove some players to quit. Covid just provided an easy cover story. We'll find out if any of the reporters covering the NWHL are any good, or whether they're just PR fangirls pretty quickly.

Im a little bit behind on replying but I think it could be a bit of both. I don’t think the league is in a true bubble like the NHL and others were, so I wouldn’t doubt some Covid cases being in the mix. The Barstool situation is also thought provoking at least, while I don’t want to think it had anything to do with the Riveters leaving, there’s definitely a small rift created between the players in the league rejecting Barstool completely, players who recognize Barstool’s flaws but are willing to accept their support, and likely players who are more engaged with Barstool and want their support.

And as much as I think players, fans, the league want to put the incident behind them either way. It’s definitely something that’s going to pop up again.

I think as with any debate there’s some fault on both sides regarding the Barstool matter. While I don’t follow barstool content closely I think their recent stuff that I have seen has been cleaned up a bit, and I think the NWHL shouldn’t be so quick to write them off entirely. But also on Barstool’s end I don’t think they should be taking the stance of “imagine where we could take you, we’re your only hope” as the NWHL while still growing is getting some higher profile sponsors as it goes along (recently announcing Discover).

Somewhere both sides could probably find mutual ground. As for the media covering the topic, well they just haven’t been any help and even in today’s media world where most is an Op Ed or clickbait for ratings piece, I don’t think I’ve seen the amount of personal bias in reporting as some of the “articles” I’ve read about the NWHL Barstool conflict.

 

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Back to Game #2 for Saturday ...

The Whitecaps get a power play early in the 2nd period, and MIN forward Nina Rodgers ties the game at 1-1.

 

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MIN kills off a minor not long after they score, but TOR comes back with an even strength goal by forward Taylor Woods (her third goal in The Bubble) to regain the lead @ 2-1.

 

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Not long after Six forward Taytum Clairmont is stoned on three straight shots by Caps goalie Leveille, MIN comes back with 29 seconds left in the period to tie the game 2-2 on a goal by 3rd season forward Brooke White-Lancette.

Intermission, Zamboni Zen time.

 

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Almost midway through the 3rd, after Minnesota has several offensive chances to take the lead, Six forward Sarah-Eve Coutu Godbout scores on a dirty reach-in from behind the MIN net to give Toronto another lead @ 3-2.

 

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Eight minutes left, Nina Rodgers gets her second PP goal of the night for Minnesota to tie it 3-3. The Caps looked lackluster on the preceding 5-on-3 (with credit to the Six for a couple of very good defensive plays), but they finally made TOR pay @ 5-on-4.

 

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Grant-Mentis scores her second of the game @ 23.2 seconds left in the 3rd. 4-3 Toronto.

 

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Final Score = MIN 3 - TOR 4. A scrum ensued behind the Toronto end red line after the horn, but broke up quickly. Save those feelings for the Final.

ETA: League game wrap-up ...

Toronto hands Minnesota first loss of season

 

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Sunday Bubble Play starts with the 2nd game of the best-of-3 play-in between Boston & Buffalo (3 PM Eastern), followed by Toronto vs. Connecticut for playoff seeding (7 PM Eastern).

 

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Saturday's video highlights. Pardon the adverts.

 

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Halfway thru the 1st period in Game 2 of the play-in mini-series, no score between BOS & BUF. Beuats had the first PP, but the Pride defenders did a very good job of clearing the zone & captain Jillian Dempsey took a turnover straight to BUF goalie Carly Jackson who gobbled up the shot.

 

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End of the 1st, BUF 0 - BOS 0. Boston outshot Buffalo 13-7. The Pride have been very aggressive on their forecheck, forcing a lot of turnovers. If the Beauts can strategize between periods to take advantage of that aggression, they could get more odd-woman rushes. BOS goalie Lovisa Selander looks beatable.

 

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Less than a minute into Period 2, Boston defender Mallory Souliotus buries a fortunate rebound off the end boards (with a little help from a teammate) to put the Pride up 1-0.

 

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And just under 2 minutes left in the 2nd, Boston forward McKenna Brand takes another bounce off the end boards & beats CJ stick side for a 2-0 lead.

ETA: And with 4.1 seconds left in the period, Pride rookie & #1 pick Sammy Davis adds a pretty goal.

End of the second period, Boston 3 - Buffalo 0. The Beauts have looked too slow & too small to counter the aggressive physical play of their opponents so far. Gonna be tough to turn that advantage to their favor for Period 3.

 

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Less than three minuted into the 3rd, off an offensive zone face-off, Souliotis scores her second goal for Boston to give the Pride a 4-0 lead. Carly Jackson yanked & Caty Flagg will see her first time in the Buffalo goal.

 

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PP for the Pride, and defender Lauren Kelly makes it 5-0 on a very good shot from the point.

ETA: And less than a minute later, Boston forward Meghara McManus scores their 6th goal of the day on a blind turnaround a few feet from the Buffalo crease.

 

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Final Score = BOS 6 - BUF 0. The Pride stay alive - VERY alive - in this best-of-3 play-in. Final SOG totals were 36 for Boston & 31 for Buffalo, but those numbers don't reflect the offensive dominance of the Pride in this game.

Two bright spots for Buffalo: (1) Their PK played very well in their three shorthanded situations; (2) backup goaltender Caty Flagg looked more comfortable & played solidly once she got some ice time. But they're gonna need more than penalty killing & an inexperienced goalie to compete in the deciding game on Monday night.

Game summary ... Pride best Beauts, force deciding Game 3

 

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TOR v CTW in their seeding match. The Whale get a PP opportunity about 4 minutes in, but they cannot capitalize.