BOSTON — As the final seconds wound down on the clock of Wednesday’s Boston Fleet game, goaltender Aerin Frankel breathed a sigh of relief as forward Jamie Lee Rattray bounced the puck off the boards and out of the zone to secure the Fleet win.
The final sixty seconds, a 6-on-5 empty-net advantage as Seattle tried to overcome a one-goal deficit, were an onslaught on Boston, and it came after a penalty kill.
But Frankel only had to save one shot as the players ahead of her blocked three shots in the 1:13 ice time that the Torrent had the 6-on-5 advantage.
The Fleet blocked the other shots that Seattle sent toward the Boston net, blocking six in the third period alone and 13 throughout the entirety of the game.
“They made that last minute feel pretty long, but we had so many huge blocked shots, which makes that 6-on-5 so much easier for me, and I think it was just a great team win, everyone contributed,” Frankel said. “It’s everyone on our team. It’s not just a couple of players. When it’s their turn, they always block it. It gives me extra confidence in them, and obviously sometimes gets chaotic in front of the net, but just having the confidence that they’re going to help me and block shots is huge.”
The Fleet held on to a 2-1 score despite the late push from the Torrent to beat Seattle in front of a sold-out crowd at Agganis Arena to snap a two-game losing skid that saw a third-period lead diminish in each of the Fleet’s losses.
“It was a gutsy effort by our team. When things got tight in the third period, we stuck together, and it was a focus for us,” Fleet coach Kris Sparre said. “We’ve had the lead, I think it’s nine times now in the first 10 games of the season going into the third period, and we found ways to close out those games, and we felt the last two kind of slipped away from us, so the focus for us tonight was to sustain a concentrated effort right to the end.”
Rattray had the final play of the game, but she also scored the first goal of it late in the first period after the Fleet struggled to connect on their passes to open the game.
Rattray and linemate Laura Kluge had a 2-0 opportunity after two Seattle players collided on Boston’s blue line. Rattray entered the zone with the puck and sent the puck to Kluge. As Rattray rushed the net, Kluge sent it back as Seattle goaltender Corinne Schroeder committed to defend Kluge’s shot, and Rattray finished the play by sending the puck into the net to give the Fleet the 1-0 lead late in the first.
“Those 2-on-0 situations, they don’t happen very often,” Sparre said. “It was so clean. [The puck] just went over and right back. I don’t anticipate seeing a lot of those throughout the year, but if we get another one, we look pretty good at it.”
Keller extended the Fleet’s lead to 2-0 just 18 seconds into the third period while the Fleet were on a power play. She sent the puck hard into the net past Schroeder, and the Fleet captain has scored three of her four goals on the power play, leading the league with those three power-play goals. The Fleet were 20% with the player advantage against Seattle.
“I thought our breakout entries were great, so we got in quickly. We were able to get some opportunities off of that [on the power play],” Sparre said. “We talked a little bit about an attack mentality and not just looking for that perfect back-door play or that empty net. We want to establish the shot early and create the chaos for the penalty kill from there, so I think that was a plus.”
Seattle didn’t go down without a fight. In their return to Boston this season after being selected in the expansion draft by Seattle, Hannah Bilka and Hilary Knight connected for a goal to cut the Torrent’s deficit to one midway through the third period.
Boston went on the penalty kill late in the third as Seattle started to gain some momentum and generate offense. Through the final few minutes, the Fleet escaped their own zone just once through their penalty kill and the 6-on-5.
“Having those experiences in the last couple of games helped us learn a lot,” Frankel said. “It’s a really difficult league, and you’re always going to get a really strong third-period push from every team. Tonight, we handled it very well, and we had obviously been there before, and we know what it takes to close out on a team, so just proud of our effort.”
Boston will look to continue winning as the Fleet next travel to Halifax to take on the Ottawa Charge in a Takeover Tour game on Sunday.
