LOWELL, Mass. — A two-goal night from Hannah Brandt led PWHL Boston (4-3-2-6) to a 3-2 overtime victory over PWHL New York (2-4-3-7) in front of a team record crowd of 4,607 at the Tsongas Center on Sunday.
“They stayed with it the whole way,” said PWHL Boston head coach Courtney Kessel following the game. “The energy was positive in the room and on the bench. They just stuck with it.”
They don’t ask “how,” only “how many”
Boston put pressure on New York from the jump. The hosts break through in the only way Boston knows how: a weird goal. Hannah Brandt picked up the puck off of the end boards and attempted to send a backhand pass to a trailing Jamie-Lee Rattray.
Rather than getting to Rattray, however, the puck ramped off of the blocker of New York goaltender Abigail Levy. Somehow, it snuck its way beneath the crossbar to give Boston a rare home ice lead just over four minutes into the game.
New York would be given the first power play of the game when Amanda Pelkey was ruled off for boarding. The visitors would struggle to create chances with the extra skater and ended up chasing the puck up and down for the duration of the opportunity.
Boston picked up solid chances on their first power play opportunity of the game when Madison Packer was called for tripping. Boston’s early luck seemed to have run out, however. With a wide open net in front of her, Loren Gabel clanged a shot off of the iron to keep the lead at one.
While dominating the shot total 16-7, PWHL Boston’s lead remained at one going into the first intermission.
Mill City Mayhem
The hosts began the second period on the power play following a late first-period penalty to New York’s Micah Zandee-Hart but would come up empty on their truncated opportunity.
The parade to the New York penalty bench continued when Jamie Bourbonnais was sent off for Tripping just past the first media time out of the middle frame.
Abigail Levy continued to stand on her head, foiling every opportunity that Boston seemed to develop. At the midway point of the second, Boston had registered nine shots on target to New York’s one.
Hillary Knight would call for an illegal body check just past the ten-minute mark of the period. The New York power play developed more high-quality chances than in previous iterations but again came up empty-handed.
The fireworks began to erupt just after Knight’s release from the box. Boston alternate captain Megan Keller took a massive bump from Jade Downie-Landry. Knight came after Downie-Landry following the hit. The two exchanged hard cross checks before being escorted to the box with matching roughing minors.
The Empire (State) Strikes Back
New York broke through late in the second period. Elizabeth Giguère cut across the crease, forcing Boston netminder Emma Söderberg to sprawl out to attempt to make a stop. With the net yawning open, Giguère fired the puck over Söderberg’s head to tie the game at one apiece.
New York took the lead just moments later on the strength of a Jamie Bourbonnais slapshot. The New York forward line took away Söderberg’s eyes. The puck rocketed past her right skate, launching the visitors into a two-goal lead.
Even with the ice heavily tilted in Boston’s favor, New York’s one goal deficit had transformed into a 2-1 lead at the second intermission.
Comeback: complete
Boston’s Sophie Shirley brought the game back to square just over five minutes into the third period. Susanna Tapani found Shirley on an incredible no-look pass from below the goal line to send the Tsongas Center crowd into a frenzy with 15 minutes to play.
Boston would continue to pile on the pressure, but Abigail Levy continued to come up huge for the visitors, all but single-handedly sending the game to overtime.
The overtime would be more of the same for Boston, picking up chance after chance, but Levy continued to hold the line.
With New York knocking on the door of a winner, Hannah Brandt stole the puck at the top of the defensive zone. With open ice in front of her, Brandt raced into the attack zone with Rattray in tow. Rattray took the puck on a drop pass and fired a shot towards the far post. Levy made the initial save, but the rebound squirted out to Brandt, who tapped the puck into the net to seal the 3-2 overtime victory for Boston.
Postgame proceedings
PWHL New York head coach Howie Draper struggled to find many positives following his team’s fifth consecutive loss.
“This was not a performance that we can be happy with,” Draper said postgame. “I felt that we started off where we wanted to start, but then it seemed like we kind of unraveled. The game got away from us. We fought back. That’s one thing this team can do. We’ve got to learn how to capture a little bit of that fight and bring it into the first period more often.”
Although the game went to overtime, the ice was heavily tilted in favor of PWHL Boston. The hosts outshot New York by a factor of two, putting up 46 shots on net with only 23 in reply.
“We’ve been working on getting more shots on goal but also making sure they’re quality chances,” said PWHL Boston forward Hanna Brandt postgame. “We’ve been trying to get more [shots from] between the [face off] dots. I think we did a good job of that.”
The Goldilocks zone
Following PWHL Boston’s relatively dominant display over New York, it feels like the pieces are finally starting to come together. And not a moment too soon as the league begins the final push to the playoffs.
“I know we’re not sitting at the top of the standings right now,” head coach Courtney Kessel said postgame. “We’re going to peak when it’s right and I think that we really have a special group.”
PWHL Boston will head back on the road to play Minnesota on Wednesday before meeting up with PWHL Ottawa for a neutral site game in Detroit next Saturday. New York will have five days to rest up before heading to Minnesota next Saturday night. All PWHL games can be streamed on YouTube.
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