Riveters Down the Six
By JJ Pavlick
11/19/22
Today's game is the home opener for the Metropolitan Riveters, the team looks to open their new rink with a big win. A little bit of history about the team and its logo first though. The team logo "Rosie The Riveter" was a historic poster created by artist J. Howard Miller for Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Co. Also, the Westinghouse company logo that is on Rosie's collar will be worn by the Riveters all season.
Today's matchup will see the Riveters take on the Toronto Six in a back-to-back meeting. The Riveters (0-1-0 0pts) look to bounce back after their 0-2 defeat to Boston last weekend. Toronto comes in 2-0-0-1 5pts. The Six enter today 1 point out of first and tied for the league lead in team goals. The Six's Brittany Howard enters the weekend as the league’s leading scorer with three goals and four points.
"We are so excited about this iconic partnership, because the historic "Rosie The Riveter" poster created by artist J. Howard Miller was produced for the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company.” "If you look closely at Rosie's original shirt, she's wearing a Westinghouse Electric Badge on her collar. Today, the Metropolitan Riveters are proud to wear Westinghouse on our ‘work shirts’ as well.” -Digit Murphy Riveters President.
There is a good size crowd at American Dream for today's matchup in New Jersey. The anthem singer wraps up both anthems with an amazing performance.
"Tomorrow, we need to stay out of the box more, way too many penalties" "Our Offense was our defense today" "We found some good chemistry in our lines today which was big" - Venla Hovi (Head Coach)
The first period saw a better performance from the Riveters, they came out with purpose and speed. For the first 10 minutes of the period, they were the more dynamic team on the ice. The Riveters despite being on the penalty kill early (2:49 in), took advantage of a defensive lapse by Toronto and Sarah Bujold snuck past the pair of defenders and went in all alone on goalie Elaine Chuli and beat her glove side for the shorthanded goal. Their aggressive play has helped stop Toronto from developing in the Riveters zone. Toronto did respond despite the strong play by the Riveters, at 13:53 of the first period Tereza Vanisova scored off assists by Emma Woods and Lindsey Eastwood. Overall, it was the best period of hockey for the Riveters in the young season. It was a good response to the game they had in Boston last week and showed the league they will be a team to deal with this season. I expect the Riveters to come out strong and better disciplined in the 2nd period to respond to the late goal given up in the 1st. There were still mistakes being made on the ice and a few bounces that could've gone the other way and completely changed this game. Was it a perfect first period no, was it a horrible period? No. The team has some things to still work on, but overall, they capitalized, and Toronto didn't.
"The Forward had only one out and I took a chance, I cheated a little bit and then jumped the pass, I knew I could breakaway with my speed. They were Toast." "Today's stick is going to stick with me it's not leaving my side, nope no way." -Sarah Bujold
The second period saw the Riveters fail behind 2-1 at the 8:38 mark of the second period when league leader Brittany Howard found a way past the defense and went in on goal all alone from center ice. She beat McQuigge just over her glove and under the crossbar backhand for the goal. The Riveters responded quickly scoring just over a minute later with a goal from the slot. Kelly Babstock found a loose puck from Sarah Bujold, and she fired on net and pounced on the bad rebound putting it over the blocker to tie the game at 2-2. Toronto would take a costly penalty seconds later giving the Riveters a power play and they made the most of it scoring the go-ahead goal 1 min and 44 seconds into the advantage. Sarah Bujold would score her second goal of the game and season, burying home the wide-open chance from the slot, beating the goalie high blocker side, assists go to Kelly Babstock and Kendall Corine. The Riveters take a 3-2 lead and push the accelerator hard, flying all over the ice not giving Toronto an inch of space to move. They do need to control the high-speed play as there were a few times they had the tendency to overskate pucks or failed to clear the zone properly. The high pressure would pay off though as team captain Madison Packer would score on a knuckler from the slot, it was assisted by Anna Kilponen who found her captain wide open giving the Riveters a 4-2 lead. Toronto would take back-to-back bodychecking penalties late in the period. The second penalty will carry over (0:09) to the third period. The Riveters at times look better than they did against Boston, however, they're still making the simple mistakes out there and getting lucky that Toronto is having an off day. At the end of the 2nd-period shots are all even at 17 a piece, The Power Plays are Toronto 0/2 Metropolitans 1/4.
The third period started with a bang for the Riveters, Kelly Babstock found the back of the net just 48 seconds into the period going top shelf from the goal line over the blocker. The goal put the Riveters up 5-2 and it was assisted by Emilie Harley. Toronto would score at the 8:16 mark of the third period to make it 5-3, the goal was scored by Emma Woods and assisted by Michele Cava. Madison Packer would add an empty netter to finalize the game 6-3 for the Riveters.
It was a better game by the Riveters compared to last week against Boston, the team looked tense in Boston and played afraid to make an error. Today the team was looser but still making the same mistakes defensively. It is something they will need to improve on if they want to make a push for the title. Today they did just enough to beat a bigger Toronto side that had an off day. Sarah Bujold had an amazing game and took the 1st star for her efforts, and Kelly Babstock to the 2nd star. I would expect Toronto to come out strong tomorrow and try to dominate early. Toronto has a height advantage in the back on the Riveters but never managed to capitalize on it. The shots at the end of the game were Toronto 30 and the Riveters 23. Though to the players on the Riveters, it felt like they had been doubled up on for a second straight game. Toronto finished the game going 1/6 on the PP and The Riveters went 1/6 and had a shorthanded goal to start the game. I would expect the Riveters to play a more disciplined game tomorrow and continue improving on the ice. The win improves the Riveter's record to (1-1-0 3pts) Toronto falls to (2-1-0-1 5pts). Toronto maintains second place and the Riveters move up to 4th place. Game Time for tomorrow is noon ET.