Pride Hand Whale 2nd Loss of Season!
Brittany Ott and Co. defeat Connecticut 4-1
Coming into the weekend before the All-Star break, one team stood alone on top of the standings, the 11-1 Connecticut Whale had just one setback, a 2-1 loss to the Boston Pride (8-3-1) at the end of 2015. The Pride and the Whale are scheduled to play 4 of the remaining 6 weeks of the season. Sunday’s match up was very important for both teams to set the tone heading into the end of the season.
The questions heading into the game were; could the Pride stay hot coming off an 8-1 smack down of the Riveters? Could the Whale shut down the powerful Pride offense? Could the Whale solidify its top spot in the league or would the streaking Pride send a message to the Whale heading into the All-Star break?
Game Twitter Feed from @MyWSports
First Period
Starting for the Connecticut Whale: Darkangelo, Stack, Babcock, Engstrom, Wohlfeiler and Leonoff in net.
Starting today for the Boston Pride Field, Llanes, Buie, Marvin, Bellamy, and Ott in the net.
Whale win the opening faceoff.
Diving paddle save by Ott!!!
GOOOAALLL #44 Tomimoto puts one past the glove of Ott, assist by Kelli Stack, CT leads 1-0.
That's how you help out your goalie with some defense, Amanda Pelkey was trying to chip it in and Danielle Ward cleared her out.
Boston penalty on #23 Buie, 2 min for body checking. CT on the Power Play.
Shot from the point, save by Ott!
Tell me a defenseman better that Blake Bolden and I still won't believe you!!! Penalty killed!
Goal goes in for the Pride... but waved off by the ref for a high stick play... ugh... thought that was the equalizer...
Penalty on the Whale, #61 Stack, 2 min for cross checking.
THERE IT IS!!! Jordan Smelker with a top corner wrister for the GOOOAAALLLL!!! Tied up 1-1
End of the first, 1-1. Period ended with a great defensive dive by Kacey Bellamy.
Second period
Penalty on Buie, 2 min for tripping, Connecticut on the PP again.
Blast from Kaleigh Fratkin, covered by Ott. Not today Kale, not today. Penalty Killed!
Defender takes out Leonoff, but the Pride can't punch it in. Then Brianna Decker pounds a slapshot into Leonoff's chest.
2 min body checking penalty on Fratkin. 5-3 for 13 seconds.
GOOOAAALLLL!!! Gigi Marvin beats Leonoff over the stick!! Pride lead 2-1
#56 Koizumi headed to the box. 2 min for tripping. Power Play extended!
Bouncing puck jumps over Leonoff and in!!! 3-1 PRIDE!!! Goal scored by Amanda Pelkey!!!
Third Period
Ott just made a MATRIX style catch. falling backwords, catches the puck between her glove and head!!! OMG!!
40 shots on goal for the Pride. You'll win a lot of games when you can get that many opportunities.
Pride Penalty, 2 min on Pelkey for cross checking. CT on the Power Play.
Another Pride penalty, 2 min on Decker for cross checking. The Whale will be 5 on 3 for 37 seconds.
Bobby Jay calls a timeout to put together the game plan. The Pride go with Bellamy, Marvin and Dempsey for the 3 skaters.
And that's it!! The Pride take down the Whale 4-1!! Great defensive effort tonight from all the D pairs of the Pride.
The Whale have been known for comebacks and overtime wins. Heading into the third period, with the Pride leading 3-1, the lead was not comfortable. However, Ott and the defense came up huge in that third period. After the game, Kacey Bellamy said during the first intermission the Pride discussed the game plan for shutting down Stack saying they were going to “stay on her the whole time.” That they definitely did, Stack did not make the score sheet tonight.
When asked if the 5 on 3 power play kill was a huge moment for the team, Bellamy said “Oh, definitely, three minutes left, this was anyone’s game, they can still come back, and they are a great team with a lot of solid players. We stuck to our game plan, this was a good team effort, good team win.”
This game could have lasting implications heading into the final month of the season. The Pride have the mental edge on the Whale with 3 games still to play between the teams. The Pride offense has been the hottest offense of the NWHL this month. Ott took the overtime Buffalo loss at the start of January very personal and it’s clear that she has been the best she can be since that game. Today, the Pride became the team to beat.
Follow Kyle Wescott on Twitter @MHSWescott
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