Buckle up, it’s going to be intense when Toronto and Montreal clash on Sunday
Toronto has been close to perfect on the penalty kill
Sunday’s fourth of five regular season matchups between PWHL Toronto and PWHL Montreal is unlikely to be the kind of game anyone will deem tame or docile.
A physical game Friday when Montreal was dominated on the scoreboard and felt they didn’t match the aggressiveness of their hosts set the tone for a pushback game when the two square off this Sunday in a matinee affair at PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh.
And if Montreal is out to prove they cannot be pushed around, fully expect Toronto to push right back. A team that sets the tone physically and is tough to play against is the identity that is now firmly rooted in the Toronto DNA and only became more entrenched in who they are when it helped them climb out of an early hole and run off nine straight wins.
Expect, therefore, special teams Sunday afternoon to have a major say in the outcome.
On the penalty kill side, no team has had the kind of success Toronto has had. They have been shorthanded a total of 47 times and allowed two goals against in those situations for a stellar 95.7% success rate. Factor in the two jailbreak goals the team has scored while down a player and you can make the argument that overall, they have been perfect on the kill.
Montreal, on the other hand, has struggled when they are short-handed. Teams have scored a league-high 11 goals against Montreal with a Montreal player in the box though Montreal has also been short-handed a league-high 59 times.
Toronto also has an edge over Montreal in power-play situations. Both teams have scored five times on the power play, but Montreal has had 13 more power play opportunities.
PWHL Toronto head coach Troy Ryan admits his team’s 11.1% success rate with the player advantage has to get up to somewhere around 20% before he’s satisfied, but he doesn’t view either scenario in a vacuum.
In a game all Ryan wants for his team is to win the overall special teams battle and with a penalty kill functioning at a 95.7% success rate, he’s getting that most nights.
But that doesn’t mean he’s not focused on getting more out of his power play.
So it wasn’t that surprising that towards the end of practice on Tuesday, Ryan and his five primary power-play specialists — Renata Fast, Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse, Hannah Miller and Blayre Turnbull were huddled at one end of the ice talking things over.
“My conversation with them was for them to go over t
