Natalie Spooner Leads PWHL Scoring Race with Hat Trick Performance

PWHL

Spooner ties for league lead in goals and passes Poulin for top spot in scoring race

Posted: 3 Hours ago
Last updated: 52 minutes ago

Toronto defenseman Sarah Nurse, center, is the first player in her first PWHL season to reach double figures in goals and assists. (X/@PWHL_Toronto)

Sarah Nurse scored two goals in the first period and finished with her first career hat trick as visiting Toronto gained the two-seed and home ice advantage in the first round of the Women’s Professional Hockey League playoffs with a 6-2 victory over New. York at UBS Arena on Sunday.

Toronto (11-4-0-7) ties Montreal (10-3-5-5) for first place with a game in hand entering the final week. Toronto has home games with Minnesota on Wednesday and Ottawa on May 5 remaining. Montreal, which can finish no worse than second, ends its regular season in Boston on Saturday.

It took Toronto just 65 seconds to grab the lead for good.

Nurse used assists from Renata Fast and Hannah Miller on the power play to open the scoring.

Emma Maltais and Kali Flanagan assisted on Nurse’s second goal, also on the power play, at the 12:54 mark. Maltais pulled into a four-way tie for the league lead with her 13th assist of the season.

Toronto turned it into a rout with two goals over a span of 91 seconds in the second period.

Alexa Vasko scored for the second time this season at 3:56 with assists from Brittany Howard and Rebecca Leslie.

Natalie Spooner followed with her 16th league goal of the season, six more than the next closest player. Jocelyne Larocque had an assist as Toronto took a 4-0 lead after two periods.

WATCH | Nurse storms Toronto with 3-goal performance in New York:

1st to double figures in goals, assists

Nurse scored her third goal with an assist from Spooner 54 seconds into the final period for her first career hat trick. The assist gives Spooner 23 points this season, one more than Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin in the scoring race. Nurse has 10 goals and 10 assists this season and is fourth. Nurse is the first player in the first season of the league to reach double figures in both categories.

Leslie’s second goal of the season came off an assist from Howard and stretched the lead to 6-0 at the 5:12 mark. The goal tied Montreal’s record for most scored in a single game.

Toronto goalkeeper Kristen Campbell, who leads the league with three shutouts this season, missed another shot when Abby Roque found the net for New York with 11:20 left to play. Alex Campbell earned her 13th assist and Ella Shelton earned her 10th on Roque’s fifth net of the campaign. Campbell is third in the race with 21 points.

New York’s Brooke Hobson scored her first career goal – assisted by Micah Zandee-Hart and Jade Downie-Landry on a power play with 48 seconds left – to round out the scoring.

Campbell saved 31 of 33 shots for Toronto.

Abigail Levy started and saved 18 of 24 shots for New York (3-4-3-12). Lindsey Post played the final 14:31 and stopped all five shots she faced.

New York opened the season with a 4-0 road win over Toronto. Toronto has three regulation wins and a shootout win in the game since then.

New York, which was eliminated from postseason play, closes the regular season at home against Ottawa on Tuesday and Minnesota on Saturday.

WATCH | PWHL Toronto takes on New York: