Slow Start Dooms Torrent in 2-1 Loss to First-Place Fleet
Looking to climb above the .500 mark, the Seattle Torrent went up against the first-place Boston Fleet on Wednesday with sights on an upset. Going into this matchup Seattle was 3-1-1-3 and Boston was 6-0-1-2, the best record in the PWHL.
From the opening faceoff, the Torrent were swarmed by the Fleet, allowing the home squad to live on their side of the ice for much of the first period. But Seattle made a valiant effort to come back from an early deficit, ultimately falling 2-1 in a hard-fought defeat that kept Boston atop the standings.
How did the Torrent come up short? And how did the team nearly pull off a comeback?
Sluggish Start Dooms Torrent
It’s safe to say the first period didn’t go as planned for the Torrent. Fleet right wing Jamie Lee Rattray managed to score a goal with the assistance of left wing Laura Kluge with just a couple minutes left in the first period. Seattle also had to defend a dozen shots from Boston, which wasted no time displaying an aggressive attack getting frequent opportunities on the net. The Torrent tried their hardest to match the Fleet’s aggression level, but it just wouldn’t be enough as they were dominated in almost every matric on the stat sheet in the first 20 minutes.
Thanks to their aggressiveness, the Fleet stockpiled 12 shots on goals in comparison to just nine for the Torrent. Aside from winning 64.7% of the faceoffs and having the only power play opportunity on an interference penalty against left wing Jill Saulnier, which the visitors failed to capitalize on, it was a one-sided affair with Seattle going into the first intermission down 1-0.
Sloppy Play Defines Second Period
No fireworks went off in the second period for the Torrent or the Fleet, as neither team managed to score a goal. But it was still an ugly 20 minutes for Seattle, which committed three penalties. The first penalty went against forward Lexie Adzija, who got called for hooking. The second penalty would be called on forward Brooke Bryant who ended up being penalized for a delay of game, while the third penalty was called on defensemen Cayla Barnes for roughing.
“I think we closed that gap with them a bit more,” Torrent coach Steve Rourke said after the game. “I thought we did a lot of nice things, penalties just kind of killed our momentum at times and we just couldn’t stay going there.”
Continuing the same trend from the first period, the Fleet were way more aggressive creating opportunities to score. Boston attempted eight shots on goal, while Seattle managed to attempt only two shots. At this point in the game, the Fleet had attempted nearly twice the number of shots as the Torrent had, and that lack of chances kept the road warriors on the wrong side of the scoreboard.
A Difficult Third Period
The third period couldn’t have started much worse for the Torrent, defensemen Megan Keller scored for the Fleet just 20 seconds after the opening faceoff. The goal was assisted by right defensemen Haley Winn and center Susanna Tapani as Boston swiftly attacked the goal and cashed in to increase its lead to 2-0.
Several minutes later, the Torrent responded with a goal of their own as forward Hannah Bilka found the back of the net 7:14 into the period. The goal was assisted by forward Hilary Knight, as the two former Fleet players connected to trim the lead to 2-1 with plenty of time left on the clock to try to knot the score.
Unfortunately, Seattle couldn’t take advantage of extensive opportunities late, as Boston goalie Aerin Frankel stopped four goal attempts in the last 90 seconds. Going with an empty net generated a few extra chances to tie, only for those efforts to come up short as the Torrent lost for the second time in their past three road contests.
“I’ll give them credit,” Rourke said. “We dragged a lot of shots to the net, and they blocked them off.”
Falling to 3-2-1-3 on the season, the Torrent will aim to bounce back in another tough road environment against the Ottawa Charge on Sunday as they travel to Halifax.
