The Toronto Sceptres scored three goals in just over six minutes and four goals total in the third period, to complete a comeback victory over the Boston Fleet at a sold-out Agganis Arena on Wednesday evening.
The regulation loss marks the end of Boston’s nine-game point streak, with the Fleet’s last regulation loss coming against Toronto on Feb. 14.
Daryl Watts led the way for Toronto with two goals in the period, while Renata Fast scored the game-winner for the Sceptres. Hilary Knight scored both goals for the Fleet, with Alina Müller and Susanna Tapani picking up the assists on both scores.
Knight’s first goal gave the Fleet the 1-0 lead late in the first period, and Boston maintained that lead until the third. Watts collected her first of the night at 4:07, tying the game at 1-1, after she banked the puck off Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel from behind the net.
“I think a few shifts in a row we couldn’t get the puck out, ends up in the back of our net. It’s from below the goal line, kind of hits off Frankel and goes in the net,” Fleet coach Courtney Kessel said. “It’s a little bit unfortunate, but you can never take a shift off in this league. Anything can happen in this league, so you have to show up every shift.”
Less than two minutes later, Hayley Scamurra put Toronto ahead 2-1 with her first goal of the season. Continuing the momentum, Fast gave the Sceptres a two-goal lead at 10:16 with what would be the eventual game-winner.
Knight scored her 15th of the season for Boston’s final goal of the game to cut Toronto’s lead to 3-2 with seven minutes to play.
But Watts sealed the 4-2 win for Toronto with a power-play goal three minutes later. Watts’ goal came a minute into a Sceptres 5-on-3 opportunity as Boston’s Megan Keller and Jessica Digirolamo took penalties for holding and roughing, respectively, at the same time in the third period.
Toronto goalie Kristen Campbell made 28 saves on 30 shots, while Frankel recorded 23 saves on 27 shots in the loss.
Boston will play in the final PWHL Takeover Tour game, and the Fleet’s third, on Saturday against the Ottawa Charge at 2 p.m. ET at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis.
“We can trust everybody in that room. It’s just critical plays of picking up a stick here, dropping coverage there, finding ourselves in the box when we shouldn’t be, just things like that,” Knight said. “Obviously, it’s a game of minimizing mistakes and we go back to the drawing board and look forward to St. Louis at this point.”
