The Boston Fleet saw their season come to a bitterly disappointing end in Game 4 on Sunday afternoon. They again struggled with consistent quality offense as they fell to the Ottawa Charge, 4-3, in double overtime. Michela Cava, who has won championships in five straight seasons across the SDHL, ZhHL, PHF, and PWHL, was the hero, sending the Charge to their second straight Walter Cup Finals.
“When you’re left with this sort of empty feeling that we have right now, I’m competitive, our players are competitive, of course we wanted more,” Fleet head coach Kris Sparre said postgame. “I thought we were built for more. But we threw as much as we could at Ottawa over the last four games. We played physical, we blocked shots, we competed at a high level, like I said, I’m so proud of this group.”
Despite scoring a PWHL record (regular season or playoffs) three goals in 1:33, Boston’s offensive stubbornness spelled their doom. In all four games of this series, they only managed to score in one period. In both games where they had multiple goals, they came in quick second-period bursts. Outside of those stretches, the Fleet failed to make the adjustments necessary to put pucks past Philips. A high volume of initial quality shots is simply not enough against a goaltender as good as her.
The Fleet laid 46 shots on Gwyneth Philips this afternoon, as they again outshot the Charge by double digits. However, outside of the second period, they created too little netfront chaos while not pouncing on rebounds fast enough.
“Scoring is certainly difficult,” Sparre said postgame about outshooting Ottawa in every game this series, yet coming out on the wrong side of it. “You see it across the board every night. You have to give Ottawa credit. They do a good job boxing out, they get sticks on pucks. I’ve been on the other side of it, as a winner before. It sucks when you’re on this side of it, but full credit to Ottawa. I’ll tell you what, you push on them, they push right back. They’re resilient just like their coach, who’s going through some things with her health, and we wish her and obviously the Ottawa Charge all the best.”
Boston’s defense was also not at its best Sunday afternoon, allowing Ottawa the most high-danger shots they had all series. The defense’s bad night came at a particularly poor time for the Fleet, considering Aerin Frankel’s rebound control was not up to its usual level. The combination resulted in too many loose pucks that Ottawa beat Boston to, three of which ended up in the back of their net, plus a power-play deflection.
For the fourth straight game, Ottawa opened the scoring despite Boston getting the majority of the offensive chances. Just 39 seconds into a Daniela Pejšová penalty, Fanuza Kadirova’s shot deflected off Sarah Wozniewicz’s skate and past Frankel to give the Charge the lead just 6:38 into the game. At the time, shots were 8-3 in favor of the Fleet.
Rebecca Leslie then extended Ottawa’s lead early in the second period. She and Brianne Jenner combined for their first points of the series following a major Boston defensive breakdown to make it 2-0 Charge.
Just 1:54 after Leslie’s goal, Boston’s offense came roaring to life. Shay Maloney got them on the board at 5:19 when she battled through netfront traffic to pot a rebound. Just 41 seconds later, Megan Keller sent one of her signature above-the-circles power-play one-timers home to tie the game. It was Boston’s first-ever playoff power play goal. 52 seconds after that, Sophie Shirley buried a rebound following a hard net drive to give the Fleet their first lead since Game 1.
However, it would not last the period. A rebound leaked through Frankel, and Brooke Hobson narrowly beat defender Rylind MacKinnon to the puck to retie the game.
No one else scored in regulation. So, to overtime they went for the first time in a series that many expected to feature lots of OT. As is practically tradition on Mother’s Day weekend in the PWHL, one extra frame wasn’t enough. However, unlike past years, which saw 3OT and 4OT games, Cava didn’t let this one last much longer. Just 1:12 in, she buried a slick pass from Kateřina Mrázová to send Ottawa back to the Walter Cup Final.
All things considered, it was a frustrating end to a season in which Boston had Walter Cup aspirations after vastly outperforming their preseason projections. They had plenty of chances to win this series, outshooting Ottawa a whopping 142-94 while also dominating scoring chances. There are no moral victories in playoffs, so what matters most is that they didn’t do the dirty work necessary to solve Philips. However, that doesn’t mean the Fleet aren’t proud of their season, however disappointing the ending may be.
“We have an incredible group of players who came to work every day and made my job easy,” Sparre said postgame. “As a first-year head coach, I couldn’t have asked for more. It sucks here tonight, but I’m certainly thankful and proud of our group.”
Alternate captain Jamie Lee Rattray also reflected on the team’s chemistry throughout the season.
“We came to work and we worked for each other,” Rattray said. “Kris challenged us in the beginning of the year and we did that; no one complained one bit. It’s such a special group. I had a ton of fun coming to the rink every day, you don’t always find that in pro hockey. I think if you look across the year, at every single game it didn’t matter who got it done, we were pumped for that person. It was a group effort and I’m super proud of this group. It stings right now obviously but we gave it our all. You look at how many chances we had throughout four games this series, you don’t get much closer than that. Just a special group, and honestly I think I’ll remember this team for a very long time.”