Boston Pride squeeze past Toronto Six in PHF elite power struggle
Toronto hosts again Sunday when women's hockey teams play regular-season finale
Not much separates the Boston Pride and Toronto Six in the Premier Hockey Federation standings.
And, as illustrated Saturday, not much separates them on the ice either.
The visiting Pride, leading the seven-team women's professional hockey circuit by six points over the second-place Six, defeated Toronto 3-2 on Saturday at Canlan Sports-York.
Christina Putigna, Loren Gabel and Olivia Zafuto scored for the Pride (19-3-1), who clinched the regular-season title. They trailed 2-1 after the first period, but led 3-2 going into the third.
😮💨 Nasty<br>🚨: Olivia Zafuto (<a href="https://twitter.com/olivia_zafuto?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@olivia_zafuto</a>) <a href="https://t.co/WZLaXToHVE">pic.twitter.com/WZLaXToHVE</a>
—@TheBostonPrideBreanne Wilson-Bennett and Daryl Watts scored for the Six (16-5-2), who outshot the Pride 37-20.
"They stuck to the game plan during the first period by just getting pucks to the net, and we showed them a lot of goals on video before the game and how most goals are scored on her [goalie Corinne Schroeder] and that was with traffic and off of rebounds, and they were rewarded for it," said Toronto Six head coach Geraldine Heaney.
"Sometimes, they think they're getting a little bit better, but they didn't stick to the game plan in the second period and it showed. Turnovers cost us. I think we had a lot of chances throughout the whole game, but every time you turn them over, they [Boston] capitalized on our turnovers."
"It was our own mistakes, and we need to clean up on this."
Get in front of the net, and good things can happen. <a href="https://twitter.com/breannewb?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@breannewb</a> opened the scoring for us this afternoon and for that, earned today's "Power of She" Moment of the Game presented by <a href="https://twitter.com/Athleta?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@Athleta</a>. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/T6?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#T6</a> <a href="https://t.co/izlt4x3MqB">pic.twitter.com/izlt4x3MqB</a>
—@TheTorontoSixMaking her 17th start of the regular season, Elaine Chuli made 17 saves between the pipes in the losing effort.
"Chuli is one of the best goalies I've ever seen, she keeps us in games, and it's unfortunate today that we didn't get the win for her," said Watts of her club's starting goaltender. "[Sunday], we're going to come out and hopefully get a win for her because we need to help her out."
The Six look to get back in the win column again Sunday, as they face the Pride in the regular-season finale at 2 p.m. ET.
