This round robin game between the Connecticut Whale, coached by former Toronto Maple Leaf enforcer Colton Orr, and the Toronto Six was an interesting competition to say the least. To set the stage: The whale had a few days off after a schedule reset occurred as the Metropolitan Riveters were forced to drop out of the tournament for health reasons related to COVID-19. Conversely, the six had to play in their first round robin game against the previously undefeated Minnesota Whitecaps the night before. I say earlier when the six got a great win to take that undefeated title from the Whitecaps.
The Round Robin will determine the seed for the playoffs, which will take place on Thursday 4th February and the final for the Isobel Cup on Friday 5th February. So today’s game was an important win for Toronto.
Elaine Chuli continued to be a dominant force on the net for the Toronto Six as she made several superb saves to keep the Six on top for the second period in addition to an overall great performance.
The great thing is that Toronto dominated the results sheet of this competition. They opened the scoring when Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout made a high backhand shot that Amy Curlew diverted forward to give Toronto a 1-0 lead.
Always smash the net. @ AmyCurlew // // #The six pic.twitter.com/uFmHOcm3yg
– y – Toronto Six (@TheTorontoSix) February 1, 2021
They followed with a power play goal with a great shot from defender / striker / incredible athlete Taylor Woods to make it 2-0.
X SIX GOAL 🚨
Sarah-Eve Coutu Godbout will score her second goal of the season here with a pass from Curlew to bring Toronto into play. #CTWvsTOR pic.twitter.com/LFh1kv7QKk
– The Ice Garden (@TheIceGarden) February 1, 2021
Then there were two goals from Mackenzie MacNeil
Mackenzie MacNeil strikes again! Great shot through a screen here. It is now a 2-0 goal game for them. She went into the night with 0 points at Lake Placid. @ TheTorontoSix lead 4-0. https://t.co/IvBmBhxzdj
– Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) February 1, 2021
Mackenzie MacNeil collects the puck and scores after Ives loses sight of the puck. It’s a 3-0 game with @ TheTorontoSix to lead. https://t.co/Fa4XzXw5gs
– Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) February 1, 2021
This was in pursuit of whale goalie Abbie Ives, who was the unfortunate recipient of a dominant attack in Toronto, and Mariah Fujimagari, who was no better. They added up to 5-0 with a goal from the four-man French Sarah-Eve Coutu-Godbout.
X SIX GOAL 🚨
Sarah-Eve Coutu Godbout will score her second goal of the season here with a pass from Curlew to bring Toronto into play. #CTWvsTOR pic.twitter.com/LFh1kv7QKk
– The Ice Garden (@TheIceGarden) February 1, 2021
The final blow the Six landed to score six goals on the scoreboard was that of their sniper Mikyla Grant-Mentis.
And here is the 6-0 goal.https: //t.co/BSmCufrKRG
– Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) February 1, 2021
The first bad (from a Toronto Six point of view) was that the Six got four players on their roster to cover absences over the course of this bubble season.
#NWHL News: Connecticut adds FOUR players: Rachael Ade (D), Sarah Hughson (F), Maeve Reilly (F) and Mariah Fujimagari (G).
Per publication, all four are “under contract, training and practicing with the whale in Connecticut for months, and having met all medical protocols.”
– Melissa Burgess (@_MelissaBurgess) January 31, 2021
Just as the night before, the Six were forced to play with a shorthanded team of just 10 forwards and 5 defenders after strikers Brooke Boquist and Emma Woods and defender Kristen Barbara were unable to compete.
Reasonably enough, the six watch the start of the game. Playing with only 15 skaters on two consecutive evenings requires a lot of hockey. But obviously, as we saw above, that didn’t slow them down on the score sheet.
One of the few bad moments in the actual game was when Connecticut Whale striker Janine Weber was awkwardly taken out by a fallen six-player and then left the game.
Janine Weber, one of the nicest people in hockey, needs help from her teammates. I think Eastwood, a Defender of Six, slipped over to challenge Weber and pulled out her leg. She went down awkwardly. In much pain. Https://t.co/P2k7eMWORS
– Mike Murphy (@DigDeepBSB) February 1, 2021
With this win, Toronto takes first place in the tournament and hits fourth in the first semi-final game. Number 4 will be decided by a third game between Boston Pride and Buffalo Beauts, who split the first two games of this series.
Coach Digit Murphy on the additional challenges they face with the shorthanded line-up:
“I think the players get more fluent with the three lines. I’m glad we had the long bank with this short event, but the TV breaks are really for a kind of short-banked team. I’ve seen Minnesota a couple of times and they played two lines because you can. With our team you will get into flow with the three lines; We talked in the third phase: attack, defense and off, get your linemates out there, get into a rhythm and they just do it. I’m not going to say it helps us but it could be … we’ll see it on Thursday. “
On a busy schedule, the six have the next three days off to begin this battle for the Isobel Cup. and on Thursday the real fight begins. You can find the coverage here on The Leafs Nation!
