LOWELL, MA – The key to beating Gwyneth Phillips is to generate quality offensive chances, as the Boston Fleet did Saturday night.
However, you still have to finish those chances, and that’s exactly what the Fleet were unable to do in their 3-1 loss to the Ottawa Charge.
“The opportunities are there,” Fleet forward Abby Newhook told reporters after the game. “We had a ton all game. So, if we can just bury our chances when we get them going into the rest of the series, I think we’ll be just fine. I think getting opportunities is what you want to see, so we’re happy to have that on our side.”
Boston landed 31 shots on Phillips on Saturday after tallying 28 on Thursday. Seven of those came right from the slot, with numerous others close by. On top of that, the Fleet were gifted two grade-A third-period opportunities off bad Charge turnovers. Neither ended in a goal. That said, their lack of finish despite ample scoring opportunities is not something Fleet head coach Kris Sparre plans to call too much attention to this week.
“Our job is to find ways to generate chances, and I thought we had enough tonight,” Sparre told reporters postgame. “We had pucks laying on the goal line, we hit posts. We had second and third chances in front of their net. And so it’s really not something that you want to draw too much attention to because then players start gripping their sticks. But just keep creating those chances and eventually it’s gonna go.”
Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice, the Charge did an excellent job of capitalizing on their opportunities. They landed just 21 shots on Aerin Frankel, but they broke through Boston’s defensive structure much better than they did in Game 1. They landed double the amount of slot shots (4) while taking her eyes away better for the shots from distance. That directly led to their first goal, in which Ronja Savolainen sailed a point shot through traffic and past Frankel to give Ottawa another first-period lead.
Then, early in the second period, Fanuza Kadirova’s shot bobbled past Frankel for a rare goal the Boston netminder likely wants back, which resulted in the first two-goal lead of the series for either team.
Megan Keller then scored with just 9.5 seconds remaining in the middle frame to cut Ottawa’s lead in half. But a two-goal lead proved too much to overcome on a night the puck refused to bounce the Fleet’s way.
“It’s sort of a tough one to summarize all in one,” Sparre said postgame while sharing his overall thoughts on the game. “There’s a lot of interesting moments in the game. I thought we certainly had enough chances to win. Had a hard time finding that second goal. Doesn’t help when you get behind two early like that. But the encouraging part is, I think that we have not played our best hockey yet in the series. So we’re going to try and find some time here in the next few days to iron those things out.”
The series now shifts back to Ottawa for Games 3 and 4. Both games will take place at the Canadian Tire Centre, with Game 3 set for 7 p.m. ET on Friday, May 8 and Game 4 scheduled for 3 p.m. ET on Sunday, May 10.