ELMONT, NY (April 28, 2024) – Sarah Nurse recorded her first-ever PWHL hat trick as Toronto defeated New York 6-2 at UBS Arena on Sunday afternoon.
With the win, Toronto clinches home-ice advantage for at least the first round of the PWHL Playoffs, as they move into first place in the league standings. They’re currently tied in points with Montréal atop the PWHL at 41 apiece but hold the tiebreaker with a game in hand.
Nurse now has five goals in her last two games played. She scored twice in her last game— against Montréal on April 20 at the Bell Centre—which included the overtime winner. She now sits tied for second in the league in goals and fourth in overall scoring.
Natalie Spooner added a goal and an assist and moves back into the PWHL’s scoring lead.
Nurse got started early, scoring her first just 1:05 into the first period.
As she parked herself at the top of the crease, Flanagan fired a shot from the point that was tipped onto Nurse’s stick by Emma Maltais. Nurse corralled the puck and snapped it past Abbey Levy to give her team an early 1-0 lead.
Nurse doubled Toronto’s lead with her second tally of the opening frame, scoring a powerplay goal at 12:26.
With control in New York’s zone, Hannah Miller and Renata Fast passed the puck back and forth at the point before Fast fired it at the net. The puck deflected off Nurse’s stick and past Levy to make the game 2-0.
Fifty-four seconds into the third period, Nurse completed the hat trick.
With the game 4-0, Nurse deflected a pass attempt by New York in their own end and the puck ended up on Spooner’s stick. Spooner quickly fed it back to Nurse, who drove the net, put a shot on goal then scored off her own rebound to make the game 5-0.
Spooner scored her league-leading 16th goal in the game and, with two points in the contest, moves back into first place in PWHL scoring with 23 points in 22 games.
Scored at 5:27 of the second period, Spooner moved laterally across the top of the left circle, firing a shot from the high slot which sailed over Levy’s glove to make the game 4-0.
Alexa Vasko and Rebecca Leslie also scored for Toronto, with Leslie adding an assist.
New York broke up Kristen Campbell’s shutout bid at 8:40 of the third period with a goal from Abby Roque, assisted by Ella Shelton. They also added a late powerplay goal with just 48 seconds remaining in the game, as Brooke Hobson scored her first of the season.
Campbell made 31 saves in the game to record her league-leading 14th win of the season.
Levy made 18 saves in the loss. Lindsey Post replaced Levy midway through the third period and stopped all five shots she faced.
Up next, New York looks to rebound in a home game against Ottawa on Tuesday night at Prudential Center with another chance to earn the first overall pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft. Toronto hosts Minnesota on Wednesday at Mattamy Athletic Centre with their sights set on clinching the number one seed.
Postgame Quotes:
Sarah Nurse on scoring her first hattrick: “It’s pretty cool. Obviously, I get to play with some pretty great players who put me in good positions to score. It feels good, I think from a scoring perspective I’m not the biggest goal scorer ever, but it’s nice to contribute in that way too for this team.”
Toronto head coach Troy Ryan when asked if it was one of the more dominate efforts of the year: “Goals wise, nice to score when you get six. But there were parts of the game that I liked, and parts of the game that we can be much better at. At this point in the year, I don’t believe that’s a performance that’s going to give us success in the playoffs, but at this point right now, the game that it was, we’ll take the results.”
New York head coach Howie Draper: “The message moving forward is that we have to play with a higher degree of energy and urgency and fight and compete — and every other word that you want to throw in there. Just for pride. There’s other things on the table that we want to compete for but I think the big thing is just to feel good about our product.”
Notes:
- Attendance: 1,668 – UBS Arena, Elmont, NY
- Three Stars: 1) Sarah Nurse 2) Kristen Campbell 3) Natalie Spooner
- Shots ended 33-29 in favor of New York— They led the category in the second (11-10) and third (12-9) — Shots were 10-10 in the first period.
- Spooner led all players with six shots on goal – Nurse finished second with five.
- Abby Roque, Jaime Bourbonnais and Micah-Zandee Hart led New York in shots on goal with four each.
- Toronto and New York were both 1/4 on the powerplay.
- Ella Shelton (NY) led all players with 30:42 of ice time – Jocelyne Larocque (TOR) finished second with 30:18 TOI.
- Toronto’s six goals are a season-high for the team and ties Montréal (Feb. 24) for the most scored in a single game – Six goals are the most allowed by New York this season.
- Toronto became the first team to score six straight goals in a game, surpassing the previous league-high of four.
- New York outshot an opponent for the fourth time all season and third time in four games.
- This was Nurse’s third multi-goal game of the season – She scored twice against both Montréal on April 20 and Minnesota on Feb. 27, recording the overtime winner in each contest.
- Nurse moves into fourth in league scoring with 20 points (10G, 10A) in 22 games played.
- All ten of Nurse’s goals this season have been scored on the road.
- With two points (1G, 1A) Spooner moves back into first in PWHL scoring with 23 points in 22 games (16G, 7A) — She joins Marie-Philip Poulin (MTL) as the only two players averaging greater than a point-per-game at 1.05 ppg — Poulin is averaging 1.10 points-per-game.
- Alex Carpenter (NY) produced one assist to bring her point total to 21 (8G, 13A) in 22 games played which ranks third overall in league scoring.
- Spooner (4G, 1A) and Carpenter (2G, 3A) finish the season series with five points each.
- Emma Maltais (TOR) extends her point streak to four games (5A) — She now has 13 assists on the season and moves into a four-way tie for first in the category in the PWHL.
- Renata Fast (TOR) extends her point streak to three games (1G, 2A).
- Brittany Howard (TOR) records her first multi-point game of the season with two assists in the contest.
- Alexa Vasko (TOR) now has two goals and scored them both in games at New York.
- Lindsey Post (NY) made her first appearance of the season, playing 14:31 in the third period – New York is the first team to give a third goaltender playing time this season.
- Toronto wins the season series between the two teams, winning four of five games, finishing with an 11-4 advantage in points.
- Toronto finishes with a road record of 5-3-0-4 and 21 points.
- Toronto (11-4-0-7) moves back into first place with 41 points on the season — They are tied in points with Montréal but currently hold the tiebreaker with a game in hand.
- New York (3-4-3-12) now has two games remaining to collect ‘Draft Order Points’ towards earning the first overall pick.
- Today’s game celebrated Pride at UBS Arena.
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