Category: HOCKEY

OTTAWA, ON – Claude Giroux and Parker Kelly scored, and the Ottawa Senators beat the Chicago Blackhawks 2-0 on Thursday night for their fourth consecutive victory.

Anton Forsberg made 19 saves in his second shutout of the season and No. 5 for his career.

It was Ottawa’s first win against Chicago since Dec. 20, 2016, snapping an 11-game skid.

“Really good start; kind of set the tone for the rest of the game,” Kelly said. “Thought we did a pretty good job of just keeping them at bay, getting pucks behind them and not really letting them in our zone. Really liked our game tonight, a full 60.”

Chicago goaltender Petr Mrazek made 32 saves. The last-place Blackhawks had won two straight games.

Fans piled near the glass during warmups to see Chicago rookie Connor Bedard, but the 18-year-old center was kept off the scoresheet.

“We just didn’t match their intensity,” Chicago coach Luke Richardson said. “I think they were a step ahead of us everywhere and unfortunately we paid the price. (Mrazek) kept us in and gave us a chance to get back in the game but our power play that has been very good for us lately tonight was a little sloppy.”

The Senators were coming off a 6-2 victory at Buffalo on Wednesday night.

Ottawa held Chicago to just six shots on goal in the third as the Blackhawks pressed to beat Forsberg.

The Senators jumped out to a 2-0 lead early in the first period.

“The first period was the difference, it’s as simple as that,” Chicago forward Nick Foligno said. “We’ve had trouble with our starts. I don’t know what it is. Obviously, they were excited coming back to a sold-out rink and we just didn’t have the same energy and compete that we needed.”

Giroux scored a short-handed goal just 36 seconds into the game. It was his 20th on the season.

Kelly capitalized on a Bedard giveaway. His shot went off former Senators defenseman Nikita Zaitsev and into the net, giving him a career-high eight goals on the season.

“We got saves when we needed it, and got a short-handed goal to start it and then again some production from different people,” interim Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “I thought we had a pretty good game, competed well and a good result.”

Zaitsev left the game, but Richardson said he wasn’t feeling well earlier and it escalated as he played. He also added that Zaitsev has been battling an upper-body injury of late.

The Senators played without defenseman Thomas Chabot, who has a lower-body injury.

OTTAWA, ON — Defenseman Jakob Chychrun broke a tie with 3:03 left with his second power-play goal of game to help the Ottawa Senators beat the Edmonton Oilers 5-3 on Sunday night.

With Edmonton’s Mattias Ekholm off for holding, Chychrun scored on the second of Ottawa’s three third-period shots, with the third coming on Parker Kelly’s empty-netter.

Tim Stutzle and Drake Batherson also scored and Joonas Korpisalo made 33 saves.

Zach Hyman scored his 50th goal for Edmonton, and Connor McDavid had two assists to push his season total to 91 and join Wayne Gretzky and Paul Coffey as the only Oilers to reach 90.

Adam Henrique and Leon Draisaitl also scored and Calvin Pickard made 11 saves for Edmonton, coming off a 6-3 loss in Toronto on Saturday night. The Senators also played Saturday night, beating New Jersey 5-2 on the road.

Edmonton forward Evander Kane sat out for what the Oilers called a “maintenance day.”

OTTAWA, ON – Daryl Watts had her first PWHL hat trick and Brianne Jenner had a goal and two assists as Ottawa won 5-3 at The Arena at TD Place on Saturday afternoon, ending Toronto’s win streak at 11 games.

This is the first loss for Toronto since January 23, also in Ottawa.

Toronto got out to a 2-0 lead in the second period with two goals from league leader Natalie Spooner— her 14th and 15th of the season— but Ottawa’s comeback started with just five seconds remaining in the frame.

Watts got the goal, a powerplay marker, to make the game 2-1 at 19:55 of the second period. Jenner provided the primary assist on the tally, her first point of the contest.

With time dwindling in the period, Ottawa rushed the puck up the ice and into Toronto’s zone. Jenner cut to the middle of the ice before feeding the puck to Watts, who was alone in the slot, snapping a shot under Kristen Campbell’s blocker to cut the deficit to one goal.

Hayley Scamurra evened the game 38 seconds into the third period, her fourth goal of the season. The marker was scored on a scramble in front and was assisted by Emily Clark and Aneta Tejralová.

Ottawa took their first lead of the game at 8:24 of the third off the stick of Jenner, her second point of the afternoon.

Linemate Kateřina Mrázová picked up an errant pass at the boards, and fed Jenner who was heading towards the net— Jenner got her stick on the puck backdoor, putting it past Campbell to give Ottawa the 3-2 advantage.

Ottawa continued to press, with Watts scoring her second of the game and her team’s third goal of the final frame, at 14:58.

Savannah Harmon intercepted a Toronto pass at the offensive blue line and banked the puck up to Watts, who drove the net before roofing it short side over Campbell’s glove to give her team a 4-2 lead.

After Sarah Nurse scored at 16:21 to make the game 4-3, it was Watts and Jenner who combined to seal the victory for Ottawa.

With Campbell on the bench for the extra attacker, Ottawa was able to clear the puck into the neutral zone. Jenner secured the puck and tapped it to Watts, who found the angle inside the blue line to make the game 5-3 with her third goal of the game. Mrázová recorded her second assist of the contest on the goal.

Emerance Maschmeyer made 19 saves to record her seventh win of the season. Campbell made 20 saves in the loss, her first defeat since January 17 against Boston.

Up next, both teams begin their IIHF International Break. Toronto returns to game action on Thursday, April 18 when they look to get back in the win column against Boston at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell. Ottawa then hosts Minnesota on Saturday, April 20.

OTTAWA, ON — Joel Hofer made 37 saves, Jake Neighbours scored twice and the St. Louis Blues beat the Ottawa Senators 5-2 on Thursday night for their fifth victory in six games as they fight for the second and final Western Conference wild-card spot.

The Blues moved a point ahead of Minnesota and within two points of Vegas, with the defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights holding the final spot.

Hofer was outstanding in the first period, making a behind-the-back save on Jakob Chychrun and another big save on Brady Tkachuk. The 23-year-old goalie admitted he exchanged a few words with Tkachuk that probably didn’t sit well with the Ottawa captain.

“I love playing the game,” Hofer said. “So, these are obviously fun games and especially games where you get a lot of shots and a lot of high chances it’s always fun making, you know, big saves for the team.”

Ottawa interim coach Jacques Martin said Hofer was the difference in the game.

“There’s no doubt when you look at the number of chances we had,” Martin said. “I think it was 22-12 in our favor.”

Jordan Kyrou had a goal and two assists, and Brandon Saad and Colton Parayko also scored.

“Every game for us is important right now,” Saad said. “For us it’s just focusing on one night at a time and any time we can win and kind of gain points it gives us a good feeling in here and it’s been fun as of late.”

Mark Kastelic and Dominik Kubalik scored for Ottawa, and Anton Forsberg stopped 22 shots. The Senators have lost three straight.

After Kubalik pulled Ottawa to 3-2 on a power play 1:58 into the third period, Kyrou took a pass in front, spun and roofed a shot for his third point of the night at 5:43. Neighbours added an empty-netter.

“The one in the third was big I thought,” Blues interim coach Drew Bannister said. “To be able to come back after that power-play goal. They come back a couple minutes later and score and that was a big response from our group to kind of settle things down on the bench.”

St. Louis center Zach Dean made his NHL debut, replacing the injured Oskar Sundqvist. Dean played junior hockey for the nearby Gatineau Olympiques.

OTTAWA, ON — Dmitry Orlov had two goals and two assists, and the Carolina Hurricanes scored four times in the third period to beat the Ottawa Senators 7-2 on Sunday night.

Evgeny Kuznetsov, Seth Jarvis, Jalen Chatfield, Jake Guentzel and Brendan Lemieux also scored for Carolina. Sebastian Aho had three assists and Frederik Andersen made 30 saves.

“We didn’t make a lot of mistakes in the third,” Orlov said. “We just put the puck deep and tried to forecheck. That’s our strength as a team. When you’ve got the puck, you just need to open up for each other. If you have a chance to shoot, you shoot it, and somebody should be at the front of the net. And I think today we did a much better job in front of the net.”

Thomas Chabot and Tim Stutzle scored for the Senators, who had their three-game win streak halted. Anton Forsberg stopped 31 shots.

“As a team you’ve got to find a way to come back in the third and get back to playing the same way,” Chabot said. “We gave them chances, obviously found the way to get in the back of our net and I mean those are the games that you’ve just got to watch and just all of us just got to look at ourselves and just be better next game.”

Some poor defensive coverage by the Senators allowed Chatfield to walk in and wrist a shot past Forsberg to make it 4-2 early in the third. Just over three minutes later the Hurricanes controlled the play as if they were on the power play and it ended with Orlov firing a puck from just inside the blue line.

Carolina put the game out of reach when Guentzel beat Artem Zub and scored his first with the Hurricanes since being acquired from Pittsburgh. Lemieux later tipped a Brent Burns shot for his third of the season.

“We were able to capitalize,” Hurricanes coach Rod Brind’Amour said. “All of a sudden, we got those chances and then, in the net, in the net, and that’s deflating for the other team. And then we’re able to just kind of sit on top of it and finish out the game.”

Carolina took a 2-1 lead early in the second with a power-play goal by Kuznetsov. Ottawa tied the game at 4:51 with an impressive effort by Stutzle, who threaded a shot through traffic for his 17th of the season. The Hurricanes regained the lead when Aho made a cross-ice pass to Jarvis, who snapped it past a sprawling Forsberg with 22 seconds remaining in the period.

Lemieux made a great pass to send Orlov in all alone and he made no mistake beating Forsberg glove side to open the scoring at 7:19. Chabot, making his return after missing the last five games, scored from the bottom of the faceoff circle at 13:52 to tie the game.

Carolina’s Teuvo Teravainen missed his second straight game due to an upper-body injury. He’s expected to return sometime this week.

OTTAWA, ON — Drake Batherson scored 3:13 into overtime, and the Ottawa Senators ended a seven-game winless streak with a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Tuesday night.

Michael Bunting scored the tying goal with 23 seconds left in regulation, but the Penguins lost for the seventh time in eight games.

Jake Sanderson broke a scoreless tie 11 minutes into the third period for the Senators, who were 0-6-1 in their previous seven games. Batherson’s winner, assisted by Sanderson and Tim Stutzle, was his career-best 23rd goal of the season.

“It’s been quite a bit since we got a win,” Batherson said. “It was a nice play by (Sanderson) to (Stutzle) and then Timmy just made a great play to me back door and I was able to just squeeze it in.”

Joonas Korpisalo made 34 saves, and Tristan Jarry had 37 stops for the Penguins, who had been outscored 15-1 in their previous three games.

Pittsburgh trails the New York Islanders by seven points for the final playoff spot in the Eastern Conference.

“A loss is a loss at the end of the day,” Jarry said. “We’re in a tough spot and that’s the only way you can look at it at this time of year. It’s tough to be in this position and we need the wins and maybe one more save might have done it.”

Sanderson put Ottawa in front after taking a pass from Mathieu Joseph in the slot. Bunting’s tying goal came with an extra skater on the ice.

The Senators thought they had opened the scoring when Claude Giroux found the net at 4:08 of the third, but the Penguins challenged for goaltender interference. After a lengthy review, the goal was overturned.

Ottawa generated a number of chances late in the second period, but Jarry turned away opportunities for Stutzle, Max Guenette and Batherson.

ile the Penguins are desperately searching for a way to spark their offence, Senators interim head coach Jacques Martin took much pleasure in a low-scoring game.

“There were some ups and downs in the game and I thought we handled it pretty good,” Ottawa coach Jacques Martin said. “We had a goal taken away, and we didn’t pack it in.”

The Senators didn’t do much with a pair of power plays in the second period. The Penguins generated great puck movement on their lone power play opportunity in the first but failed to truly test Korpisalo.

“I didn’t think we did as good a job tonight getting to the net front,” Penguins coach Mike Sullivan said. “We’ve got to do a better job fighting for that area of the rink.”

Zack Ostapchuk made his NHL debut for the Senators after being recalled from the AHL. The 20-year-old had two shots in 13 minutes.

OTTAWA, ON – Toronto scored four straight goals and never looked back in a 5-2 victory over Ottawa before a sold-out crowd of 8,447 at The Arena at TD Place on Saturday afternoon.

The victory extends Toronto’s season-high win streak to seven games and is their first win against Ottawa this season – previously losing 5-1 on Jan. 13 and 3-1 on Jan. 23.

Natalie Spooner led the way offensively for Toronto with a goal and an assist, and Kristen Campbell turned aside 23 of 25 shots faced for her eighth straight win.

Spooner opened the scoring on the powerplay at 12:53 of the first period with her league-leading 11th goal of the season and fourth with the advantage. As Toronto controlled the play inside Ottawa’s zone, Renata Fast patiently carried the puck into the middle of the ice and found a wide-open Sarah Nurse in the slot. Nurse turned and fired a low shot that deflected off Spooner and past netminder Emerance Maschmeyer.

Toronto went into the first intermission leading 1-0 and came out flying in the second period with three goals in a span of 2:28.

Brittany Howard was first to strike in the middle frame at the 2:46 mark. Victoria Bach won a puck battle in the corner and fed a perfect pass to an open Howard at the top of the circle who ripped a shot past Maschmeyer’s blocker. It was Howard’s second goal of the season – with her first also scored in Ottawa.

Hannah Miller scored her fourth goal of the season at 4:43 to make the game 3-0 for Toronto. Nurse found a streaking Spooner rushing down the right wing. Spooner’s shot was stopped by Maschmeyer’s right pad, but kicked right to Miller on the doorstep, and she made no mistake, burying the puck into the empty cage.

Following Toronto’s third goal, Ottawa pulled Maschmeyer – who had stopped 10 of 13 shots – and replaced her with backup Sandra Abstreiter.

Just 31 seconds after the change, Samantha Cogan scored on Toronto’s first shot on Abstreiter at 5:14 of the period. Bach found Cogan with time and space at the hashmarks, and the Ottawa native sniped her first PWHL goal as the puck trickled through Abstreiter’s right arm and across the line.

Gabbie Hughes put Ottawa on the board at 11:16 with her team-high sixth goal of the season. Ottawa took advantage of a turnover in the offensive zone and had their net-front persistence pay off. Campbell couldn’t quite handle a Hayley Scamurra backhand in close, and Hughes jammed home the loose puck while battling a pair of Toronto defenders.

Ottawa cut Toronto’s lead in half at 5:49 of the third period with Ashton Bell’s first PWHL goal. Jincy Roese put a shot from the point towards the net, which hit a Toronto defender, and landed in the slot where Bell managed to slap a backhander past Campbell.

Maggie Connors iced the game with an empty net goal at 18:27 – her second tally of the season.

Abstreiter settled into a groove and finished the game with 10 straight saves.

The victory gives Toronto an impressive 19 points in seven games, moving them ahead of Minnesota and into second place in the PWHL standings with 24 points, while Ottawa remains tied for fifth place with New York with 16 points.

Up next, Ottawa hits the road for a Tuesday night game in Minnesota, March 5 at 8:00 p.m. ET, at Xcel Energy Center. Toronto returns home for a Wednesday night game, March 6 at 7:00 p.m. ET, at Mattamy Athletic Centre against Boston.

OTTAWA, ON — Dylan Guenther scored the tiebreaking goal early in the third period, and the Arizona Coyotes beat the Ottawa Senators 5-3 on Friday night to snap a 14-game losing streak.

Michael Carcone, J.J. Moser, Nick Schmaltz and Matias Maccelli also scored to help the Coyotes get their first win since Jan. 22 to end a an 0-12-2 skid. Karel Vejmelka stopped 34 shots to get his first win since Dec. 27 after going 0-8-0 in 10 appearances since.

“It’s (big) for everybody,” Coyotes coach Andre Tourigny said. “For coaches, management, our fans, our media, everybody. You want to be in a winning environment, you want to have success.”

Guenther scored a power-play goal at 4:18 of the third, beating Senators goalie Anton Forsberg under the arm to give the Coyotes a 4-3 lead after they gave up a three-goal advantage.

“It’s a big relief,” Guenther said. “I think we’ve been playing really well lately. It’s just really nice to get that out of the way and continue to play well.”

Maccelli added an empty-netter with 1:15 remaining to seal the win.

“Everybody has wanted to win for a long time,” Vejmelka said. “It tastes special for us, for now. A lot of emotions for us. I’m glad and happy for the team. We finally did it.”

Senators captain Brady Tkachuk left the game with 3:30 remaining in regulation. Tkachuk had been hit earlier in the period.

Vladimir Tarasenko, Drake Batherson and Shane Pinto scored for the Senators, who have lost three in a row. Forsberg had 26 saves as a late replacement for Joonas Korpisalo (illness).

“I got a lot of shots at the start to settle in a little bit,” said Forsberg. “I don’t think our start was great, obviously, being down 3-0 in the first. … I mean we came back strong. Last period I’ve got to make that save to give us a chance to win.”

Carcone opened the scoring for Arizona 7:31 into the game as got the rebound of Liam O’Brien’s shot and beat Forsberg through traffic. Moser made it 2-0 with a shot from the top of the faceoff circle a little more than five minutes later.

Schmaltz pushed the lead to 3-0 on a two-man advantage with 4:23 left in the first when he got a cross-ice pass from Macceli and roofed the puck short side for his 17th.

“I think the beginning of the game we’ve got to be better, but special teams they got two power plays and I thought there were some calls that were questionable and we didn’t get any calls,” Senators interim coach Jacques Martin said. “I thought that was the difference in the game.”

Tarasenko got the Senators on the board with 1:51 left in the opening period with a shot from the bottom of the faceoff circle.

Ottawa outshot Arizona 19-4 in the second and scored twice 2:03 apart to tie it.

Batherson cut the lead to one with 6:11 remaining as he pulled back a rebound of Jacob Bernard-Docker’s shot and wristed it past Vejmelka. Pinto then tied it with a power-play goal with 4:08 left in the period.

OTTAWA, ON – Gabbie Hughes scored the game-winner with less than five minutes to go in regulation to help Ottawa defeat New York 4-2 on Wednesday.

After New York overcame an early 2-0 deficit to tie the game in the third period — reminiscent of the last time the two teams played in Ottawa in which New York completed the comeback in overtime— it was Hughes who broke the tie at 15:54 of the third.

The play began when defender Amanda Boulier entered the offensive zone before feeding the puck to Hughes who was headed to the net. Hughes then took the puck across the crease, outwaited New York goaltender Abbey Levy and roofed the puck with a backhand shot to give her team a 3-2 lead.

The win ends Ottawa’s two-game slide and is the team’s second victory on home ice this season.

Ottawa defender Savannah Harmon opened the scoring just 2:30 into the game, a goal that required video review, which confirmed the puck had crossed the line. Harmon took a shot in-close on Levy, and the puck just squeaked in over the line, behind the goaltender’s pad.

At 10:12 of the second period Ottawa doubled their lead to 2-0 with a shorthanded tally.

Forward Becca Gilmore fed the puck to Fanni Gasparics on the rush, who then took a shot from the slot. Levy stopped the initial attempt, but Gasparics was able to get to her own rebound, which she buried for her first-ever PWHL goal, a ‘jailbreak’ marker that also freed teammate Jincy Roese from the box.

New York answered quickly when Chloé Aurard scored her first of the season at 10:50, just 38 seconds after Ottawa’s second goal. Aurard made the score 2-1 when she created a turnover in the offensive zone, grabbing a puck that she then fired quickly past Ottawa goalie Emerance Maschmeyer.

With the game still 2-1 in the third period, New York capitalized on the powerplay to tie the game.

PWHL leading scorer Alex Carpenter intercepted a puck behind Ottawa’s net and quickly found defender Jaime Bourbonnais who was pinching in the slot. Bourbonnais executed a slick toe drag to move around an Ottawa player, then took a quick snap-shot, which beat Maschmeyer and tied the game 2-2.

With under a minute to play—and the game 3-2 thanks to Hughes’ tally—Ottawa defender Ashton Bell made what was perhaps the game’s biggest save when she denied Jessie Eldridge’s attempt to score on a seemingly wide-open cage.

Bell’s save allowed teammate Lexie Adzija to seal the victory for Ottawa with an empty net goal with four seconds remaining in regulation.

Ottawa earns three points for the regulation victory, which ties them with New York in the standings—each team has 16 points, two points behind fourth place Boston.

Maschmeyer made 24 saves to earn her fourth victory of the season. Levy stopped 26 in the loss.

Up next, Ottawa hosts provincial rivals Toronto on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. ET. The next afternoon, New York welcomes Minnesota to UBS Arena for a battle set for 12:30 p.m. ET.

OTTAWA, ON — Tim Stutzle scored the winner in the shootout as the Ottawa Senators overcame a two-goal deficit and a late tying goal by Vegas to beat the Golden Knights 4-3 on Saturday night.

“I think maybe in the past, if we got down early, obviously we still worked, but I think now we’ve come back in a few games and we believe that we can come back,” said Drake Batherson, who scored his 18th goal of the season for the Senators.

Josh Norris and Thomas Chabot also scored for Ottawa while Anton Forsberg, getting his third start in four games, made 26 saves.

“He’s played well,” interim coach Jacques Martin said of his goaltender. “I think early in the game, he wasn’t as sharp, but as the game went on, he played with a lot of confidence and poise and made some big saves for us. And in the shootout he was perfect.”

Chandler Stephenson scored twice and Jonathan Marchessault had the other goal for the Knights, who lost their third in a row. Logan Thompson stopped 30 shots.

Vegas trailed 3-2 with just under two minutes remaining, but forced overtime after Stephenson scored his second of the night at 18:45 with Thompson on the bench.

There was some relief to finally be rewarded after pulling the goalie.

“That’s been a problem for us all year,” said Knights coach Bruce Cassidy. “So, we changed up a bit of our structure on it and found the open guy and got it to the net.

“Part of our problem with that is we haven’t been executing that play to get it to the net down low, so that was good. Obviously, helps us get a point but at the end of the day I felt we played well enough to get two.”

With the game tied 2-2 Norris scored to give the Senators the lead at 5:48 of the third by tipping in Chabot’s point shot.

Vegas took a 2-0 lead just three minutes into the second on Stephenson’s power-play goal from the left faceoff circle, but Chabot cut the lead to one with a wrist shot from the high slot.

“I think it’s something to build off for a long road trip here,” said Stephenson. “Obviously, would have been nice to secure that two-goal lead we had here, but credit to them for their push and for us to get one late to get a point out of it. Shootouts can go either way.”

Chabot has goals in each of his last three games.

Forsberg bailed the Senators on a bad turnover stopping Sheldon Rempal on a breakaway late in the period.

With Ottawa on the power play Brady Tkachuk fed Batherson in the slot to tie the game with under two minutes remaining in the second.

The Knights opened the scoring at 5:41 of the first when William Karlsson stripped Stutzle of the puck along the side boards deep in Ottawa’s end and fed Marchessault, who beat Forsberg off his backhand for his 30th of the season.

Marchessault is the first player in Vegas franchise history to have two 30-goal seasons, the last coming in 2021-22.

OTTAWA, ON — Josh Norris score two goals and the Ottawa Senators beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Thursday night.

Thomas Chabot and Shane Pinto also scored for Ottawa, which has won two of its last three games. Anton Forsberg turned away 14 shots.

Joe Pavelski scored for Dallas, which has now lost four in a row.

Jake Oettinger started in net for Dallas but was pulled in the second period after allowing three goals on 11 shots. Scott Wedgewood gave up one goal on 19 shots in relief.

The Senators scored three unanswered goals while holding the Stars to just four shots in the second period.

Drake Batherson made a great pass to Norris, who got a step on Miro Heiskanen, to beat Oettinger five-hole for his second of the night at 5:37 of the second.

The assist gave Batherson his 200th career NHL point.

Chabot made it 3-1 Ottawa at 8:56 when he wristed a shot to the top right corner from the inside of the left circle.

Pinto completed the scoring with a power-play goal with 17 seconds remaining in the period.

Norris opened the scoring at 4:12 of the first period, tipping in a shot for his 14th of the season.

Pavelski scored his 20th of the season to tie the game with 9.3 seconds remaining in the frame on a delayed penalty call.

Coming into the game, Dallas was tied for the NHL lead in goals per game at 3.63. Ottawa ranked 30th in goals against at 3.57.

OTTAWA, ON – Grace Zumwinkle scored her team-best seventh goal of the season to lead Minnesota to a 2-1 victory in Ottawa on Saturday afternoon.

The game was the second in a row between the two teams in four days, with each contest ending 2-1 in favour of Minnesota.

Zumwinkle scored the eventual game winner with just 19 seconds remaining in the second period to break the tie and give her team a 2-1 lead.

The first-year pro took the original shot on the play which ended up on teammate Maggie Flaherty’s stick at the point after the puck was fired wide. Flaherty then took a shot from the point, which hit traffic in front, but Zumwinkle was able to pounce on the loose puck in the slot and put it past Ottawa goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer.

Minnesota’s Sophia Kunin was the first to get on the board in the game, scoring her second goal of the season at 18:33 of the first period give her team a 1-0 lead.

The goal, unassisted, was scored on a breakaway that was created after two Ottawa players collided. Kunin was then in all alone from the blue line and utilized a slick deke to slide the puck in five-hole.

Ottawa’s Emily Clark was finally able to get the home team on the board on what was their 18th shot on goal at 10:04 of the second period.

Clark finished off a passing play created after teammate Aneta Tejralová held the puck in the offensive zone at the blueline. Forward Gabbie Hughes then picked up the puck at the hashmarks before passing it across to teammate Amanda Boulier who found Clark back-door for the tap-in tally.

Despite a furious finish to the game in which Ottawa pulled Maschmeyer for the 6-on-5 advantage, Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley came up big several times to secure a critical three points for the regulation victory.

Hensley made 28 saves to secure her fifth win of the season. Maschmeyer stopped 22 shots in the loss.

With the win, Minnesota adds to their lead in the standings where they now sit four points ahead of Montréal and Toronto.

Next up, Minnesota has a quick turnaround as they head to Montréal for a game tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. ET at Place Bell. The next afternoon, Ottawa plays in Boston at the Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell for a Presidents’ Day tilt— the game was originally scheduled for January 8 but was postponed due to inclement weather.