Fleet falter in Game 2 as Charge even best-of-five Walter Cup semifinal series
The teams will have six days off before Game 3 on Friday, May 8.
LOWELL — The Boston Fleet will head to Ottawa needing to play spoiler after dropping Game 2 of the Walter Cup semifinals to the Charge.
After Ottawa took a 2-0 lead in the second period, Megan Keller got one back for Boston in the waning seconds of the frame, but for all the Fleet’s efforts — out-shooting the Charge, 31-21 — they couldn’t find the equalizer.
Gabbie Hughes potted an empty-net goal with 2 minutes remaining to secure a 3-1 win over the Fleet and tie the best-of-five semifinal series at one game apiece in front of 6,017 rowdy fans Saturday night at the Tsongas Center.
The teams will have six days off before the series turns to Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre for Game 3 on Friday and Game 4 on May 10.
Ronja Savolainen gave the Charge a 1-0 lead 6:44 into the game with a shot from the blue line, beating Aerin Frankel (17 saves) high on her glove side as Brooke McQuigge set up a screen.
The goal was nearly identical to the Charge’s opening tally in Boston’s 2-1 win on Thursday, when Rory Guilday fired a long-distance shot and Jocelyn Larocque parked in front of Frankel to tip it home.
Savolainen’s goal came just after a faceoff at center ice that was the result of an errant icing call. When officials whistled the puck dead after it crossed the Charge goal line, Fleet players protested, arguing that Alina Müller had touched it in the neutral zone.
Ottawa won the ensuing center-ice faceoff, setting up the zone time that resulted in Savolainen’s goal.
The Charge, usually most dangerous in transition, began the second period with an extended stretch in their offensive zone. For nearly two minutes, the Fleet struggled to get a clear, and Fanuza Kadirova fired a one-timer that ricocheted off Frankel’s stick and over her shoulder to give Ottawa a 2-0 lead.
With just over 6 minutes left in the second period, Keller — penalized just four times in 30 regular season games — headed to the box for an illegal hit on Kadirova, but even with one of their most reliable penalty killers in the box, the Fleet allowed just one shot to get through to Frankel.
The Fleet captain got her team — and the Tsongas Center crowd — back in it with 9 seconds left in the second period, scoring her first playoff goal to cut Ottawa’s deficit in half.
As the clock wound down on the period, Müller carried the puck into the zone and pulled up to get around a Charge defender before sending it to Abby Newhook in the slot. Gabbie Hughes blocked Newhook’s shot, but the puck bounced onto the stick of Keller, who made a move not unlike her Olympic gold-medal winning toe drag and fired through two Charge defenders to beat Gwyneth Philips (30 saves).
The crowd roared to life after the goal, Keller’s first in 10 playoff appearances.
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