By: Dylan O'Loughlin
BUFFALO, NY --- Keybank Center was the next stop for the Professional Women's Hockey League Takeover Tour as the New York Sirens hosted the Boston Fleet. After 65 minutes couldn't decide a victor, Boston forward Susanna Tapani netted the lone goal in a best-of-five shootout to secure the Fleet's 3-2 victory.
"It's been nice to win," Boston Fleet head coach Courtney Kessel said. "We went through a little bit, we had four ties, and we were on the road for 15 days at one point just kind of grinding it out and I'm so impressed with the team and the way they stayed with it. They pulled together and I think it speaks volumes to our culture."
Both teams entered the afternoon on complete opposite tracks. Boston rolled into Buffalo on a three-game win streak with its last outing resulting in a 3-2 overtime victory over Ottawa thanks to the stick of Tapani. On the other side, New York came in losing its past six with four being decided by three goals or more.
Heading into the overtime period, Boston built some momentum. Tied 2-2 to start the third period, Boston was outshot 8-1 in the first half of the frame. The Fleet responded, though, as they outshot the Sirens 8-4 in the final 10 minutes of regulation.
Great defense from both sides bled into overtime as neither team found the back of the net in the extra five minutes. Both had chances but goaltenders Aerin Frankel and Kayle Osborne shined. Boston's Frankel made four saves in the period to add to her game-high 37 saves while Osborne blocked five pucks to finish with 30 saves.
In the shootout, it was all Boston. Frankel went 5-for-5 in goal against the Sirens in the shootout. To go along with that, Tapani was next on the ice for Boston's second shot of the shootout. The forward made her move and buried the puck into the back of the net just right of Osborne to lift the Fleet to its fourth straight victory. This was Tapani's second straight game-winner and third on the year to lead Boston.
"I don't watch any film on shootouts or anything, but I think just trying to be patient, it's hard," Frankel said. "These players obviously have so much skill and we see that every night in this league. So, you've really got to be patient as a goalie, try to wait them out and let them make the first move."
In the first period, it was an offensive showing. Within the first five minutes of play each team put three shots on goal. The Sirens drew first blood just over two minutes into the game as New York forward Sarah Fillier capitalized on a Boston turnover and slid the puck into the bottom left of the goal. It was Fillier's sixth goal of the season.
Despite the early goal, Boston responded quickly. Just over four minutes later with 13:33 remaining in the first, forward Loren Gabel sent a rocket into the top right corner from the left wall to tie the game at one apiece. Sidney Morin and Emily Brown picked up the assists for Gabel's second goal this season.
"Loren Gabel is just one of the most skilled players that we've seen this game," Kessel said. "A Patty Kazmaier winner, did great things in the NCAA at Clarkson and we're going to lean on her to do some magic out there. We saw a tremendous shot from her today, I don't even know if the goalie saw it. It was so hard; she ripped it through the net."
From there the defensive physicality picked up. New York gave out four big hits to Boston, including a hit with just under a minute left in the opening 20 to open up a scoring opportunity. The Sirens took advantage as this time it was the stick of forward Jessie Eldridge after she followed up on the deflection from Frankel for her seventh goal of the season. Eldridge joins teammate Alex Carpenter as New York's leading goal scorers with the score.
After one, New York held a 2-1 lead and outshot Boston 14-9, including eight of those coming in the first 12 minutes. Fast starts have been a rarity until now, as the Sirens have scored the fewest goals all season (seven) and allowed the most (17) in the opening period.
"I think it's not the result we wanted, but I think even more so, there's a lot of positives that can come from it," New York Sirens head coach Greg Fargo said. "I was really pleased with our overall effort from start to finish. It was great to come out and start on fire. We got a big goal from Fil [Fillier] and Jess [Eldridge] again in the first period. I thought we were skating hard, we were getting first touches on pucks, we were on top of them, and we were a hard team to play against today. I just think there's more examples tonight of some things we can continue to build on."
The second period was a change of pace. The defensive intensity picked up on both sides as there were multiple big hits, bodies falling on the ice and almost a fight.
Boston's defense began to control the game. The Fleet held New York to just eight shots on goal in the frame while putting up 10 of its own. It looked like it was going to be a scoreless 20 minutes, but a cross-checking penalty on New York defender Ella Shelton put Boston on the power play with 1:29 remaining.
Boston did not let the handicap go to waste, as with 30 seconds remaining, forward Amanda Pelky found the back of the net. After three deflections Osborne, Pelky corralled the puck and sent it just inside of the left bar for her first goal of the season. At the end of two periods, the score was tied 2-2.
"I thought [Alina] Muller made an awesome play to [Hilary] Knight and I thought 'Well this is going in,'" Pelky said. "But I think we all have been gripping our sticks a little too tight on the power play for a while now and I was just trying to stay in the spot that our coach has been talking about with pucks popping out. It struck me pretty hard, and I made a play."
The PWHL kicked off the Takeover Tour in its second ever season with the goals of broadening the sports' reach across North America and to test markets it may consider expanding too. Buffalo is just the 13th venue to host a PWHL game and the 22nd all time. The energy was felt from puck drop as the crowd of 8,512 were on their feet from start to finish.
"It was really loud. I don't know if it was the music or the fans, but it was really loud even in TV timeouts," Kessel said. "But it's so nice to be able to play in front of a different crowd and spread our games across the globe here. I think this league has done tremendous things not only for women's ice hockey, but women's sports in general."
"I think it was awesome," Eldridge said. "It's our first stop on the Takeover Tour so we've been a little jealous of the teams who have stopped so far. So, to get a piece of it and to be able to help grow our game and our league has been a lot of fun."
With the win, Boston improves to 6-5-2-6 on the season and undefeated (3-2-0-0) in the season series against New York. The Fleet move up to third in the standings and look ahead to Saturday, Mar. 1 as Boston travels to Montreal Victoire for puck drop at 2 p.m.
Switching to the other side, The New York Sirens fall to 4-3-3-9 and stay at sixth in the standings. New York turns its attention to Wednesday, Feb. 26 as the Sirens travel to take on the Ottawa Charge at 7 p.m.
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