PWHL New York defeated PWHL Boston six days ago, but this win over their geographic rivals didn't carry over into Friday's game on the road against PWHL Toronto.
They say that gratuitous rest can be a curse in professional sports and that was the case Friday night when PWHL New York visited an opponent that's been a thorn in their side so far during this inaugural PWHL season.
New York goaltender, Corinne Schneider has lived up to her hype, posting the second-best save-percentage in the PWHL so far. Schroeder and New York were competing with Toronto in the first period where shot totals for either team were close, but in the second, the floodgates opened, and some Canadian water flowed out onto the ice.
Four minutes into the second period, Toronto took the lead when Natalie Spooner scored on a breakaway. The forward deked to her backhand and slid the puck under Schroeder's pads to give the home team an advantage nearly halfway through the game.
The best way to describe why Toronto led throughout this game is, New York's play was apathetic. They didn't skate hard enough and pressure their opponent's into making mistakes, instead they did the bare minimum.
PWHL New York's Struggles Continue
Toronto did not outplay the visitors as much in the 3rd period as they did in the second, but that didn't help New York pick up the pace. At 7:28, New York's Ella Shelton was under pressure and passed the puck off the boards behind her net where Toronto's Rebecca Leslie picked it up, cut in front of New York's net and took a shot that Schroeder just managed to save.
Just minutes later, Spooner scored her second goal of the game and the worst thing is.... New York players didn't skate hard enough to prevent it.
Often teams who are losing in a game, try to climb back in it in the dying minutes of the game, but it was in vain for New York in this one. They made a few rushes up the ice and tried to generate offense inside Toronto's end, but could not string enough passes together to do it. New York got one shot on goal in the last two minutes of the game despite having much offensive zone time. Toronto ended up winning the game despite not having generated much more quality offense than the visitors.
Moving on from January
The numbers don't lie and in terms of this game, the winner clearly outplayed the loser. Team shots on goal favored Toronto 30-19. Corinne Schroeder kept New York from going down three-or-four goals in this game and deservedly, was named the game's Third Star.
Toronto needed two points from this game more than New York, as they were last place (6 points) behind New York who was in fifth. However, New York have not played much better as they sit in fifth place (out of 6 teams) and this loss puts their record at 3-4 (including an OT win).
Although I was not able to hear what Coach Draper and his leaders thought, I can deduce why they were shutout. Six days passed in between PWHL NY's previous game and this one. This is three times the normal rest period that teams in professional ice hockey leagues which feature male players, have.
Toronto on the other hand, had two off days coming into this game and looked much more engaged and energized than their well-rested opponents. Although, Toronto didn't always dominate this game, they took the initiative more often than New York did and Toronto's team defense and goaltending gave really perfect performances. Because of a combination of lack-of-effort and Toronto's energy, New York came out on the short end of the hockey stick.
The positive for Draper's New Yorkers is they have a chance to wipe their memory of this bad effort out of their consciences by winning their next game. That will be on Sunday night at 1:00 pm when New York faces off with Minnesota, who have so far been double as good as the Big Apple women this season.
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