A pair of Saturday night games on the Premier Hockey Federation schedule both ended in favor of the visiting teams.
Buffalo Beauts 3, Montreal Force 1
The Beauts are officially streaking with three-straight wins for the first time since the 2018-19 season. All three of their goals were scored in the first period beginning with a Mikyla Grant-Mentis shorthanded breakaway at 8:59. Kristina Schuler picked up her first career PHF goal at 10:08, then Grant-Mentis tallied her second of the contest at 14:43 to give her two multi-goal efforts over a three-game span. Force top scorer Jade Downie-Landry ended the shutout bid on the power play inside the game’s final two minutes with her eighth goal and 20th point of the season. Samantha Ridgewell made 32 saves to earn her second straight win for Buffalo after shutting out Minnesota in her first start last Sunday. Tricia Deguire stopped 24 shots in defeat. Buffalo’s latest victory over Montreal puts the playoffs out of reach for the league’s expansion unit that trails fourth place Connecticut by 10 points with just three games remaining. The Beauts are still in the playoff hunt with 17 points and five games remaining.
Toronto Six 1, Minnesota Whitecaps 0
T6 All-Star forward Tereza Vanisova buried a loose puck from a goalmouth scramble at 16:35 of the second period for the game’s only goal. That was all Toronto needed as Elaine Chuli stopped 12 shots in each period for a 36-save shutout performance, her second of the season. Jenna Brenneman, who turned aside 30 shots, was the hard luck loser once again as Minnesota suffered a second-straight 1-0 loss on home ice. Toronto’s win puts them just one point behind Boston for first place overall and widens their lead to 13 points ahead of the third place Whitecaps who have yet to clinch a playoff spot. T6 leads the season series 3-0 and a single point on Sunday would ensure a top two placement in the regular season standings.
Cover photo by Arianne Bergeron
