Spooner Leads PWHL Toronto to 4-1 Win vs. Minnesota

In just their second regulation loss of the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) season, formerly league-leading PWHL Minnesota fell to formerly league-worst PWHL Toronto on the road in a sweet upset, serving as a huge statement for the latter squad. Goaltender Kristen Campbell had herself a wonderful afternoon, while forward Natalie Spooner had two goals and an assist in the win — both helped lead Toronto to their win. What were some takeaways?

Spooner Ended Minnesota’s Strong Start

In what became an evident theme for this contest early on, Minnesota was the better team in terms of chances and puck possession in the first period, but a late goal from Spooner broke a scoreless tie for Toronto. A seemingly harmless 2-on-2 entry on a power play turned into a 4-on-2 because of some tired Minnesota bodies, and as soon as the opportunity presented itself, Toronto was on the board. If that wasn’t enough, she added another tally later on to hit her PWHL-leading seventh goal of the season.

Unfortunately for Minnesota, the previous 19 minutes had pretty much no effect. Sometimes, that’s just the reality of the sport. Hockey is one of the very few sports where one single sequence can end an extended stint of promising play, but that was the reality. Toronto and Spooner in particular deserve some kudos for hanging in there despite Minnesota mostly controlling the pace early on, but as time went along they were able to take control themselves, opening the floodgates in the third period and ending any chance Minnesota had of winning the game.

Perseverance Kept Minnesota in the Game

Going back to a previous point, it’s very discouraging to, objectively, be the better team throughout the game and yet manage to trail for most of it. There should be some credit given to Minnesota netminder Nicole Hensley for always keeping her team in the game, but they just couldn’t finish on their looks. They had some good ones that went awry, but they at least kept at it to push Toronto that much harder.

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It’s sort of been a theme for Minnesota this season to outplay their opponents, but this one was one of the worst showings of that. They were in the contest for the whole way, but two tallies within a minute of each other with under half of the third period remaining did them in. Still, it was good to see them compete for so long — the score just looks a bit worse than it actually was.

Campbell Shut the…