OTTAWA, ON (February 17, 2024) – Grace Zumwinkle scored her team-best seventh goal of the season to lead Minnesota to a 2-1 victory in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.
The game was the second in a row between the two teams in four days, with each contest ending 2-1 in favour of Minnesota.
Zumwinkle scored the eventual game winner with just 19 seconds remaining in the second period to break the tie and give her team a 2-1 lead.
The first-year pro took the original shot on the play which ended up on teammate Maggie Flaherty’s stick at the point after the puck was fired wide. Flaherty then took a shot from the point, which hit traffic in front, but Zumwinkle was able to pounce on the loose puck in the slot and put it past Ottawa goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer.
Minnesota’s Sophia Kunin was the first to get on the board in the game, scoring her second goal of the season at 18:33 of the first period give her team a 1-0 lead.
The goal, unassisted, was scored on a breakaway that was created after two Ottawa players collided. Kunin was then in all alone from the blue line and utilized a slick deke to slide the puck in five-hole.
Ottawa’s Emily Clark was finally able to get the home team on the board on what was their 18th shot on goal at 10:04 of the second period.
Clark finished off a passing play created after teammate Aneta Tejralová held the puck in the offensive zone at the blueline. Forward Gabbie Hughes then picked up the puck at the hashmarks before passing it across to teammate Amanda Boulier who found Clark back-door for the tap-in tally.
Despite a furious finish to the game in which Ottawa pulled Maschmeyer for the 6-on-5 advantage, Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley came up big several times to secure a critical three points for the regulation victory.
Hensley made 28 saves to secure her fifth win of the season. Maschmeyer stopped 22 shots in the loss.
With the win, Minnesota adds to their lead in the standings where they now sit four points ahead of Montréal and Toronto.
Next up, Minnesota has a quick turnaround as they head to Montréal for a game tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. ET at Place Bell. The next afternoon, Ottawa plays in Boston at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell for a Presidents’ Day tilt— the game was originally scheduled for January 8 but was postponed due to inclement weather.
Postgame Quotes:
Minnesota coach Ken Klee on winning in regulation: “It’s important when you start looking at points, you know three points for a win is huge because I don’t think anyone’s going to be out of it until the last week of the season — and with all these games going into overtime. So, for me, it’s good to get rewarded when you win in regulation.”
Minnesota goalie Nicole Hensley on another 2-1 game against Ottawa: “They’re a really good team. They have a lot of really good players, so playing them back-to-back you know each other really well and what they’re going to do. I think that’s why you saw two really close games. They had a lot of good chances, and we did a really good job shutting it down. I think it’s big for us and we’d like to be able to close out this road trip with a win tomorrow.”
Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod on her team’s play: “We need to stay with it. The game we played in Minnesota, if we compare it to this game, they are drastically different games. We have to keep building and growing. We are going to stay together and get through this because we can see that opportunities are being presented. I don’t know how many rebound opportunities we had. It’s just that next step of putting the puck in the net.”
Ottawa defender Amanda Boulier on her team’s mentality after the game: “There is definitely some frustration but deep down, we’ve got such a belief in this core group. We know that we’re playing really good hockey right now. Today, we dominated most of the game. It’s not any major issues. It’s just little details. Taking care of them will allow us to go on a run, here, when we need to.”
Notes:
- Attendance: 8,407 – The Arena at TD Place, Ottawa, ON
- Three Stars 1) Nicole Hensley 2) Grace Zumwinkle 3) Amanda Boulier
- Shots ended 29-24 in favour of Ottawa— They outshot Minnesota in the first (11-10) and second (13-6) but were outshot 8-5 in the third period.
- Ottawa forward Emily Clark led all players with six shots on net — Minnesota’s Zumwinkle finished second with five.
- Ottawa’s losing streak extends to five — All have been one-goal games.
- Ottawa has outshot their opponents in four of five games during their losing streak, including a combined 112-79 in their last three games.
- Minnesota picked up their fifth win when being outshot by their opponent.
- Minnesota was 0/2 on the power play — Ottawa was 0/1.
- Minnesota incurred just two penalty minutes for the second straight game – Limiting opportunities for Ottawa’s league-leading powerplay to one in back-to-back games.
- Maggie Flaherty’s second period assist was her first of the season — She recorded her first goal of the season in Minnesota’s last game, the game-winner against Ottawa.
- Boulier extends her point streak to three games.
- Kendall Coyne Schofield’s point streak ends at four games, Kelly Pannek’s ends at three.
- With her second period goal, Zumwinkle has seven on the season — She now sits in sole possession of second place in the PWHL in the category.
- Zumwinkle now has nine points on the season, leading her team in the category — She entered the game with eight points, tied with Pannek for tops on Minnesota.
- With her nine points, Zumwinkle moves into a four-way tie with Marie-Philip Poulin (MTL), Ella Shelton (NY) and Alina Müller for second in the PWHL.
- This was the first PWHL game to end after 60 minutes without a third period goal.
- Minnesota (5-2-2-2) now adds to their first-place lead in the standings with 21 points — They’re the first team to hit the 20-point mark.
- Ottawa (2-0-4-3) remains in sixth place in the PWHL with 10 points on the season, one behind both Boston and New York.
- Today’s attendance of 8,407 was the largest at The Arena at TD Place this season, surpassing the home opener crowd of 8,318 on Jan. 2 which, at the time, set a professional women’s hockey record.
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