In one sense, the Boston Fleet are getting goalie’d.
They have one of the best goaltenders in the world in their own crease with Aerin Frankel. However, so far these playoffs, she has been outshone by her also-elite Team USA (and formerly Northeastern) backup Gwyneth Philips.
That said, Boston’s offense has shown a staggering lack of finish these playoffs, and they cannot blame it all on Philips’ play.
As she has been all series, and all season for that matter, Philips was shelled on Friday night. She faced 37 shots, including 19 official scoring chances per the broadcast, among other quality opportunities. However, the Fleet could yet again not find a way to get more than one goal past her.
As phenomenal as Philips was, the Fleet’s lack of finish was the main culprit for their loss. There were numerous missed rebounds, wide shots, and other failures to capitalize on the Charge’s defensive blunders that Philips could not have stopped.
Had Boston buried another chance to gain a lead at any point, the tone of the game would’ve changed drastically. The Fleet are no strangers to protecting a one-goal lead, having won nine of 16 one-goal regular-season games. However, after scoring first a PWHL-leading 23 times in the regular season, they are strangers to chasing games early.
Yet, conceding the first goal is precisely what Boston did for the third time in this series. A mere four seconds after a Charge power play expired, Fanuza Kadirova sizzled a shot past a heavily screened Frankel to make it 1-0 Ottawa.
“That’s certainly something we’d like to change,” Boston Fleet head coach Kris Sparre said postgame about letting up the first goal. “It’s never fun playing from behind. But again, we’ve gotta score more than one. Getting 37 shots in a game, again, multiple chances in front of the net, we’ve got to find a way to put that thing over the line so we’re not in these one goal games.”
The Fleet then answered in the midst of a dominant second period that saw them outshoot the Charge 17-5. Shay Maloney laid a purposeful shot on Philips’ leg pads, and Liz Schepers buried the rebound to tie the game.
That was it for scoring until the final minute of the game. With just 28.1 seconds remaining, Frankel made an ill-timed, uncharacteristic blunder. She went to cover a Ronja Savolainen shot from off the end boards, but she missed. It then bounced off her leg pad and into the goal to give the Charge the 2-1 late-game lead, which soon turned into a 2-1 series lead.
While that blunder ultimately cost the Fleet the game, it wouldn’t have mattered if Boston had simply capitalized on their numerous chances. Philips is in full MVP mode, but all goalies are beatable. The Fleet are doing an excellent job this series of generating opportunities from high-danger areas. However, they are not doing so well at generating the kind of opportunities most likely to beat Philips. They’re failing to screen her heavily. They’re often shooting high instead of off her pads when they get odd-player chances. And they’re not ready enough for the rebounds that come, often missing the mark by just a smidge because they took too long to get the shot off.
The good news is, these are fixable issues for Boston. The bad news is, they only have one day between games to do it, and their backs are now against the wall on the road. That said, the Fleet believe in their ability to send this series back to Lowell for a winner-take-all Game 5.
“There’s no panic here,” Sparre said postgame. “Of course, it sucks [to] lose the game tonight. You feel like you controlled most of the game. You sit here, and you’re like, 40 seconds left, they get a bad break off the end wall and in. [But] there’s not a lot of time to sit here and dwell and what ifs. Just keep running back the same game, playing hard, getting pucks into the dirty areas of the ice. [Keep] controlling the offensive zone, like we’ve been doing, and eventually, you hope that it’ll wear them down and you’re gonna get those second and third goals that we’ve been waiting to see.”