Torrent Take Charge Early Against Ottawa, Earn Commanding 4-1 Home Win

In a highly anticipated matchup Wednesday night, the Seattle Torrent turned in their finest win of their inaugural season thus far, handling the Ottawa Charge in a 4-1 victory. The Torrent dominated in every single facet from start to finish, rewarding an energized home crowd at Climate Pledge Arena.

Here are three quick takeaways from Seattle’s second home win of the season:

Power Play Puts Torrent Up Early

Capitalizing on a power play late in the first period, the Torrent got on the board first with a Julia Gossling goal in the first period, while goalie Hannah Murphy kept the Charge on lockdown despite the visitors having nearly twice as many shots on goal. Ottawa managed to take 13 shots, while Seattle only had seven in the first 20 minutes, but Gossling made the visitors pay with just three seconds left before intermission.

Interestingly, an argument can be made the Charge were the more physical team as they won more faceoffs, recorded more hits, and successfully executed more blocks than the Torrent. Seattle, however, won with technique, seizing the chance against a short-handed Ottawa squad late in the period to take a lead it would never relinquish.

Carpenter Carves Through the Charge

After a pretty even first period, things started to roll the Torrent’s way in the second period. Forward Alex Carpenter was absolutely unstoppable as she scored two goals off of assists from forward Hilary Knight, forward Hannah Bilka, defenseman Megan Carter, and Gossling at the 6:26 and 11:29 mark. Unlike the first period, they didn’t just win on the scoreboard either, they also held their own on the stat sheet in general as they started to pull away.

In the second period, the Torrent had eight shots compared to the Charge’s five shots. And, for the second straight period, Seattle took advantage of a power play, scoring on one of two opportunities in 5-on-4. The Torrent also won nearly double the faceoffs and recorded more hits, seizing control with a more physical, aggressive style.

Torrent Tack on Late Goal

After a period of pure dominance, the Torrent cooled off a little bit in the final 20 minutes. However, Bilka added to the Torrent’s point total for the day by scoring her first goal of the game at the 18:30 mark after the Charge pulled their goalie, taking advantage of an empty net opportunity. The Torrent nearly posted the shutout win but with just 38 seconds left to go in the game, Charge forward Rebecca Leslie’s shot to the upper part of the goal got past Murphy for the goalie’s lone blemish on an otherwise dominant performance.

Although the Torrent may have not gotten a shutout win as desired, they still won by a large margin in their most convincing victory of the season. The team appears to be trending in the right direction, playing better hockey each time they take the ice, and will look to maintain momentum on Sunday at Climate Pledge against the visiting Boston Fleet.