PWHPA: Host Calgary Remains Winless

Day five of the 2021 PWHPA Secret Dream Gap Tour kicked off this afternoon, and has shifted locations. The final three days of the tournament will switch venues from the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex at Grey Eagle Casino on Tsuut’ina Nation Land in Treaty 7 Territory. As an official tournament sponsor and partner, the Calgary Flames have offered up the Scotiabank Saddledome to host the back half of the games.

DAY FIVE: Team Bauer (MTL) vs Team Scotiabank (CAL)

As the host squad, Calgary’s Team Scotiabank was still looking for its first victory in Round Robin play, after giving up back-to-back blowouts of 6-1 and 8-3. Montreal’s Team Bauer was fresh off its first loss of the tournament, losing to Toronto’s Team Sonnet 4-3 the day before (recap of that contest found below!)

Calgary would start netminder Kristen Campbell, the third different starter in three contests for the hosts as Team Scotiabank looked for a change of fortunes. Ann-Renee Desbiens would get the start for Montreal in the opposing blue paint.

Despite yet another goalie swap, Team Scotiabank’s trend of early goals allowed would continue. Toronto would strike at the 18:21 mark of the first period on a goal by Kristen O’Neill (Assists to Jesse Eldridge, Jill Saulnier)

But only fifteen seconds later, Team Scotiabank star forward Rebecca Johnston would finally notch her first goal of the tournament to tie things back at one! (Assists to Meaghan Mikkelson, Blayre Turnbull)

The physicality would pick up throughout the opening stanza, with a pair of penalties going to each team as things wore on. On a late Meaghan Mikkelson body checking penalty, MTL would head to the powerplay advantage and Alexandra Labelle (Assists to Emily Clark, Laura Stacey) with 53 seconds left Team Sonnet would jump out to a 2-1 lead!

As the second period got underway, Calgary would get their own chance to respond on the powerplay with Montreal’s Karell Emard off for interference but Team Bauer would survive shorthanded. At the midway of the period, Marie-Philip Poulin would manage to sneak in through missed coverage for her third goal in three games played to make it 3-1 (Goal at 11:07, assist to Laura Stacey).

Shortly after, Calgary would see more time on the advantage off a Catherine Dubois penalty that was quickly followed by an Emily Clark penalty. This would give Team Scotiabank a 5 on 3 for 1:16, but they would wind up 0-5 on man advantages to that point in the day.

Montreal would continue to get into penalty trouble, with Jill Saulnier going off for body contact late in the period. Just fourteen seconds into the powerplay, Calgary would finally break through! Rebecca Johnston’s offensive outing would continue, getting on the scoresheet again with a great assist on the Blayre Turnbull marker with 2:52 remaining in the middle frame.

In the third period, Team Scotiabank would make it two unanswered goals to knot the contest up at 3! At 12:59, Sarah Potomak would grab her third goal in three games of the tournament (assist to Blayre Turnbull) as she has been one of the consistent spots in the limited Calgary goal scoring so far. The lead would evaporate yet again, however, as Team Bauer’s Jesse Eldridge would respond with her second goal of the tournament at 9:46 to take back the one goal lead (Assists to Marie-Philip Poulin, Erin Ambrose).

At the 12:27 mark, Calgary’s Bridgette Lacquette would sit for a tripping penalty, and although it would be killed off to leave Montreal at one-for-four on the PP to that point, it helped keep Team Scotiabank at bay as time ticked down. Scotiabank would pull goalie Kristen Campbell for the extra attacker with a couple minutes remaining, to no avail as Eldridge’s marker would stand as the game winning goal.

DAY FOUR: Team Bauer (MTL) vs Team Sonnet (TOR)

Team Sonnet handed their rivals from Montreal their first loss of Round Robin play on Day Four. It was a 4-3 TOR final score in a back and forth battle, with some highlight reel plays on the breakway from Team Sonnet as they jumped out to a two goal lead for the eventual victory. Check out these beauties from Natalie Spooner and Victoria Bach!

Despite the loss, Team Bauer notched a shorthanded goal which gave them a single point in the Round Robin standings, while the win gave Team Sonnet two points to move them closer to Montreal for first place.

The Dream Gap Tour Scoring and Standings system is as follows:

-Regulation Win = 2.0 points, OT Win = 1.5 points, Shootout Win = 1.0 points, OT/Shootout Loss = 0.5 points, and a Regulation Loss = 0 points.

Teams can also earn bonus points in the standings for registering a shutout, a hat trick, a shorthanded goal, and scoring a collective five goals or more in a game. Achieving each of these equates to one extra point in the round robin pool standings.

The final game of Round Robin play goes tomorrow, with the Championship final on Sunday at the Saddledome between the top two teams of the three. It’ll be host Calgary’s final shot to catch second place, and in addition to the two points for a win they’ll need some combination of bonus points to catch Team Sonnet and make up the six point gap. Catch Team Sonnet vs. Team Scotiabank, 1 p.m. ET / 10 a.m. PT (Sportsnet & SN NOW) tomorrow, and our recap here on M&G, as the round robin portion of the 2021 PWHPA Secret Dream Gap Tour rounds out!

by MilhouseFirehouse