With eight games left in the season, the Toronto Sceptres currently hold the final playoff spot in the PWHL standings. From the looks of it, it’s going to be a fight to the finish. That fight just got a little more interesting. The Sceptres will be without their starting goaltender for the next two games.
As first reported by Curtis Martin of Her Hockey Her Way, Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan confirmed Raygan Kirk will be unavailable this weekend. The Sceptres host the first-place Boston Fleet on Friday evening, before the 7th-place Vancouver Goldeneyes come to town Sunday afternoon.
Per Martin, Kirk left practice early on Monday and was not on the ice with the team on Thursday.
The Sceptres are just one point clear of fifth-place Ottawa for the final PWHL playoff spot as of writing, and this weekend’s games are huge as the season begins to wind down. It’s great opportunity for Elaine Chuli to step in and step up.
Getting Back Into Action
Chuli hasn’t played in over two months, with her last game action coming on January 22 in a less-than-memorable 5-0 loss to the Goldeneyes. In six games for the Sceptres this season, she has registered a 2.66 GAA and .903 save percentage.
Kirk, meanwhile, has played every minute in net for the Sceptres since January 28. She’s been especially hot lately, with back-to-back shutouts over the Seattle Torrent and Boston Fleet. Both were 2-0 wins. Overall this season, Kirk has a 2.05 GAA and .929 save percentage, with six wins.
To her credit, Chuli is a highly capable goaltender, but losing your starting netminder for (at least) a quarter of the remaining games is no team’s idea of a good time.
Games like this weekend’s will help determine just what kind of team the Sceptres are, and how they handle pressure as they attempt to play ‘playoff hockey’ in hopes of making it to the postseason. Will they step up, or be stepped on?