PWHL: Ottawa jumps in front early, but falls in overtime to Minnesota

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Minnesota 3, Ottawa 2 (OT)

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Ottawa was every bit as good as the top team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League on Wednesday night at the Arena at TD Place.

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Alas, it fell just short of being a little better.

The second home game for Ottawa ended exactly like the first, a crushing overtime defeat in a 3-2 final.

On this night the opponent was league-leading Minnesota and the winner, scored by Susanna Tapani, went in off the stick of Ottawa defender Jincy Roese.

“It’s the game,” said Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod of the heartbreaking finish. “There’s bounces all the time. You’re going to get some of those in a season you’re going to give up some of those in a season. At the end of the day, we shoot the puck and things can happen. For Minnesota tonight that helped them and yeah, it went in the net.”

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Minnesota sits in first place with 13 points on four wins and an OT loss in five games while Ottawa has five points on a win and two OT defeats.

“We got a couple chances before the goal and I tried to actually pass the puck to Denisa (Krizova) she skated hard to the net,” said Tapani. “I was a little bit lucky today but, I’ll take that.”

After attracting a sellout crowd for the home opener against Montreal, attendance for Game 2 was still a healthy 5,609.

Nearly providing the nice storyline of a player scoring the winning goal against her hometown team was Gabbie Hughes, the 24-year-old Ottawa forward who hails from Lino Lakes, Minn., which is about 30 km from Saint Paul, home of  the Minnesota team.

With just under six minutes to go in regulation time, Hughes was alone with the puck in front of the net, but couldn’t jam it past Minnesota goalie Nicole Hensley.

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On the same shift, she had another glorious chance with Hensley out of position, but her attempt at tucking the puck into the open side was denied.

“It’s obviously tough and not the ending we wanted but at the same time, we can learn from it and continue to get better,” said Hughes. “I think that’s a great game for us. We played our hearts out and put together three good periods so can only keep growing and it’s early so it’s still good.”

Savannah Harmon and Lexie Adzija scored for Ottawa in regulation time while Tapani and Grace Zumwinkle replied with a pair of goals to pull the visitors out of a 2-0 hole.

Zumwinkle’s goal was scored with Tapani in the penalty box, and as a shorthanded goal under PWHL rules, the player serving time is set free.

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“That’s our first jailbreak,” said Minnesota coach Ken Klee, who gave the rule a thumbs up. “I think it’s pretty cool. I mean it’s a bit like dodgeball, the switcheroo. Like, you catch the dodgeball and you gain a player and they lose one. So, it’s definitely a momentum changer for the game which I’ve never seen. So, it’s kind of fun.”

Through three periods, Hensley faced 25 shots in the Minnesota net while Emerance Maschmeyer was less busy with 18 tests.

Maschmeyer made a great stop off Lee Stecklein early in the extra period and was helpless on the winner.

“As a goaltender it’s, it’s about bouncing back quickly,” she said. “I know that that one ended the game, but it’s about looking forward. Every team is a really, really good team and we’re going to see competitive games all year round and probably one goal games, a lot of overtimes. So this is nothing ne, and it’s exciting, but of course we wanted to get the ‘W’ today.”

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Ottawa’s Katerina Mrazova had the first good scoring opportunity of the night when her quick shot from the bottom of the left-wing circle was kicked out by Hensley in the second minute.

The first goal came from almost the same spot in the third minute.

Doing the honours was Harmon, who stepped in from the left point and was near the dot when she snapped a hard shot that went over Hensley’s right shoulder en route to the back of the net.

It was the second goal of the season for Harmon, and it was assisted by Emily Clark and Hughes.

“That was a goal in any league,” said Klee. “When you can go short side bar down, she made a great play.”

Ottawa went ahead by a pair near the 11-minute mark with a power-play goal by Adzija, who cashed a rebound from Hensley’s doorstep.

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Earning the assists on the second of the season for the St. Thomas product were Roese and Daryl Watts.

Tapani put the visitors on the board with a power-play goal at 3:21 of the second, firing a shot that beat Maschmeyer just inside the post.

Zumwinkle tied the game with a nice solo effort, breaking down the left wing and cutting in to squeeze a shot by Maschmeyer at the 11:20 mark of the middle period.

Watts came close to putting Ottawa back in the lead with a minute-and-a-half left in the second when she skated in from the left wing and deked Hensley, only to hit the post when trying to tuck the puck in.

The shots were 7-7 after one and 15-12 in favour of Ottawa after two.

“We’re just learning,” said MacLeod. “We’re just three games in, and we won’t use that excuse at the 21st game necessarily, but right now, we’re still young and we’re still learning. In every game, we’ve had moments of where we’re really confident and there’s moments we waver but that’s so normal. We’re just working through that internally and making sure that we’re getting better and you know there are a lot of pieces I liked in our game today.”

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QUICK HITS: U.S Ambassador David L. Cohen dropped the puck for the ceremonial opening faceoff … The Minnesota team has just four Canadians: Abby Cook (Kelowna, B.C.), Michela Cava (Thunder Bay), Emma Greco (Burlington) and Amanda Leveille (Kingston) … Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod coaches Minnesota’s Denisa Krizova with the Czechia national team … Eight different players scored for Minnesota in an 8-4 victory over Ottawa in Game 1 of the league’s pre-season evaluation camp in Utica on Dec. 4 … Ottawa is off until back-to-back home games next week against Toronto on Tuesday and Boston on Wednesday.

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