Connecticut Whales sink Riveters
1/8/23
J.J. Pavlick
The Riveters enter today with their playoff hopes on the line after a devastating loss to the Boston Pride last night (4-1). The Riveters will be without leading goal scorer and points leader Sarah Bujold. The team hopes to have her back for next weekend's games against Minnesota. The two teams are very familiar with each other, the Whales jumped to an early lead last meeting before the Riveters came back to win the game.
The Whales didn't waste much time to take the lead over a flat-footed Riveters team who look exhausted. Kennedy Marchment opened the scoring just 1:10 into the 1st period with an assist from Taylor Girard. Riveters Kendall Cornine would be sent to the sin bin at the 2:18 mark of the opening period for hooking. The Rivs would kill off the powerplay holding the Whales to just 1 shot on the man advantage. Ebba Berglund would go for holding at the 4:12 mark of the period giving the Whales a 5-on-3 advantage. The Whales would capitalize and score 5-on-4 for a quick 2-0 lead, the power play goal was scored by Taylor Girard, assisted by Kennedy Marchment and Allie Munroe. The Rivs would settle down some but still look off today and the Whales would score again at the 15:41 mark when Caitrin Lonergan buries her attempt assisted by Kennedy Marchment and Taylor Girard. Taylor and Kennedy are buzzing today all over the ice. The Whales would go up 3-0 and keep it that way for the rest of the 1st period.
"Clearly, we simply couldn't bounce back from a late game yesterday coming into today the group is learning what it takes when it's a quick turnaround like that. We, we were gassed, and low energy from the beginning so that set us up for the wrong path. I thought we had a good second period, with a little bit of a step up in our game. When you can't score it's hard to find that momentum and a team like Connecticut will utilize its scoring chances today. We were missing two key players and had to shuffle things around and have the depth to fill in those missing pieces today. - Venla Hovi Head Coach Riveters
1st-period intermission interview with Minttu Tuominen
The 2nd period didn't see any sign of a response by the Rivs despite coach Hovi switching goalies bringing Burt in for Makinen and switching the lines up to try and get some momentum. The Riveters held the Whales off for the first 9 minutes of the second period but didn't create any real goal-scoring chances of their own in that time. Emma Keenan would score the Whale's 4th goal of the game assisted by Taylor Girard and Hannah Bates. The Rivs would earn their first power play at the 13:57 mark of the second period when Alyssa Wohlfeiler was called for cross-checking. However, it was the Whales who would get the only shot off when Taylor Girard found herself alone with Katie Burt, but Burt stoned her. The Rivs had a short spurt of shots late in the period but couldn't beat Meeri Raisanen. The 2nd period would end with the Whales up 4-0.
2nd-period intermission interview with Amanda Pelkey
The 3rd period started like the 1st period with the Whales scoring just 1:06 into the third period with a goal by Katerina Mrazova with assists by Melissa Samoskevich and Allie Munroe. The Whales would continue to pepper the goal without mercy and Katie Burt was doing everything in her power to keep them out of the net. At 8:06 into the third period, Katerina Mrazova scores with assists to Melissa Samoskevich and Justine Reyes. The Whales would go up 6-0 and they didn't stop peppering the Rivs goal at will. Katie Burt stood tall keeping the score at 6-0 and that's how the game would end. Burt ended the game with 24 saves on 27 shots faced. Makinen went 4 saves on 7 shots and Meeri Raisanen saved 23 of 23 shots.