LOWELL — The Boston Fleet could get used to this.
For the first time in franchise history, Boston has posted consecutive shutouts after Tuesday’s 2-0 blanking of the Vancouver Goldeneyes in front of 4,178 fans at the Tsongas Center.
There shouldn’t be any shock value to Boston’s defensive dominance playing in front of Aerin Frankel, who stood on her head with a 35-save performance between the pipes for her sixth shutout of the season.
“She’s absolutely fantastic,” said Fleet assistant coach Jordan LaVallee-Smotherman of Frankel. “She’s world class. You get that stretch probably at like the 12-minute mark to the nine-minute mark in the third period where we don’t get the puck out of our zone, they win a bunch of faceoffs, and she’s there every single time we need her to be in that situation.”
And with defensive dynamos Megan Keller and Haley Winn patrolling the blue line, the Fleet boast perhaps the best defensive trio in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.
Keller assisted Laura Kluge’s goal in the second period and led the team in time on ice (28:49) in front of Winn (27:42) in yet another game where Boston’s blue line anchors logged hefty minutes. Winn then picked up a helper on Susanna Tapani’s empty-netter in the final 30 seconds.
“They work so hard,” Smotherman said of Keller and Winn. “I think actually if they could stay out for the whole game, they’d want to. That’s the type of players they are. They just want to be on the ice and do the job for the rest of their team.”
“I thought it was an excellent hockey game,” said Goldeneyes head coach Brian Idalski. “It could have gone either way, so tip your hat to them. They did what they needed to do to win a hockey game.”
It was Boston’s league-leading sixth shutout and ninth all-time, tying the New York Sirens for the most regular-season shutouts in history. The Fleet (11-5-2-4) leaped the Minnesota Frost with the win to reclaim sole possession of first place in the standings.
“For me, I’m just trying to take it one day at a time,” Frankel said. “One shot at a time, and lean on these guys a lot to help me through. We have a really strong team, and our strength is playing together as one.”
Boston was granted a power play with under five minutes to play in the first period but struck out again on the player advantage. The Fleet continues to generate high-danger looks — Winn got off a one-timer from the top of the point — but both of head coach Kris Sparre’s units are struggling to find twine.
After being held off the scoreboard on two power plays in the third period, Boston is now 0-for-23 in its last seven games.
“Right now, I think it’s about getting one to go,” Smotherman said. “When it goes on from game to game to game, it can wear on the group mentally. We try and make little adjustments here and there, but it’s really about finding that greasy one, that rebound that’s been lying around. We have been getting chances. We’ve liked our looks, we had a couple tonight that we were really happy with.”
But power play woes have proved to be a non-factor. The Fleet has won five of its last seven while only scoring 14 goals.
The play of Frankel has a lot to do with it. She was under fire in the second period, stopping 16 shots, including a slick save on Tereza Vanišová from the point that nearly snuck by her outstretched glove. Frankel’s fifth shutout of the season recorded in Saturday’s 3-0 win over the Seattle Torrent set a single-season record. She added a sixth on Tuesday.
“She’s an excellent goaltender,” Idalski said of Frankel. “Everyone’s aware of that. So, obviously trying to get traffic, tips and not let her see things cleanly. I thought we did a decent job of that, but she made some great saves. She’s elite for a reason. She proved it again tonight.”
Boston eventually broke through at the 10:57 mark of the middle frame when Kluge redirected a shot from Keller that dribbled through Vancouver netminder Kristen Campbell. The goal marked Kluge’s first of the season.
“Obviously super excited about it,” Kluge said of her first career goal. “I think I was kind of getting closer to actually scoring the last couple of games, so I’m really happy I finally got that out of the way.”
Boston was then whistled for two penalties — the second of which was committed with 2.9 seconds left in the second — and put its stingy penalty kill on display with two clean tries.
But Frankel continued to face a barrage of shots. As Vancouver spent a significant amount of time in the offensive zone in the third period, Frankel made 13 saves while Tapani put the finishing touches on the win with 21.8 seconds left.
Comments