Photo Credit: Scotiabank Arena
On Friday February 16th, PWHL Toronto faced off against PWHL Montréal for the “Battle on Bay Street” in front of a sold out crowd in Scotiabank Arena. Setting a record for the largest crowd for a women’s hockey game in history! (19,285). Leading up to this match, Toronto had a game earlier in the week. Toronto beat Boston 5-3 in a thriller. Natalie Spooner scored a hat trick, and Sarah Nurse with a 2 point game. Montréal on the other hand, hasn’t played since February 4th.
First period action
Scoreless after the first 20, the game was still full of action. Toronto getting the first power play of the game creating momentum and a few chances. Following, Montréal would get 3 power plays in a row with 2 of them coming within 2 minutes of each other creating a 5-on-3. The period was physical throughout, with Toronto leading the hit category with almost 10 hits.
Second period recap
The second period wasn’t as exciting as the first period, but there were still many great chances. The period was a back-and-forth period with both teams having chances, with most of those chances coming in the last 5 minutes of the period. Toronto found themselves on a 3-on-1 with under a minute to go but were unable to capitalize. The crowd throughout this period was extremely loud and energetic.
Third period thriller
The third period felt nothing like the first 40 minutes. Toronto with the early momentum resulting in a goal from Jesse Compher 5:11 into the period. Montréal would have a few chances on 2 power plays but failed to capitalize. Toronto took back the momentum and Hannah Miller would score her 3rd goal of the season with a little under 5 minutes left to go to give Toronto a 2-goal lead. With surprisingly little push-back from Montréal, Toronto sealed the game with the empty net goal from Victoria Bach. As the time hit 0:00, Toronto takes game one of the “Battle on Bay Street”
Post game notes:
One of the things that were discussed throughout the post game interviews was how grateful and happy the players were to be playing in front of that crowd. Marie-Philip Poulin looked a bit emotional while talking how special the moment was for her and her team. Also, a lot of Montréal players were mentioning how cool it would be to play a game at the Bell Center. Which in my opinion, would be awesome to see.
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