Game Recap – 11/18/2018 – Whale Get First Win Of The Season

The Whale came into today’s game looking for their first win of the season. They had to play against a tough Riveters team who were coming off a win against the Pride back on October 27th. It was a very tight game, with both defenses playing well and blocking shots. Ultimately it was the Whale who came out on top at the end of the game to earn them their first win of the season.

The Riveters opened up the scoring in the fourteenth minute of the first period. A shot from Audra Richards bounced off of Räisänen’s glove and in the net. The Whale, in the last minute of the period, would get a great goal from Katerina Mrázová to tie up the game before the period ended. In the second period, there was no scoring but there was great back and forth play, and high energy between both teams. In the third period, it was more of the same, however with about a minute and a half remaining, a shot from the point by Shannon Doyle managed to find pay dirt and squeak past Katie Fitzgerald to give the Whale the lead. They would hang on from there to seal the win for the first time this season. Räisänen stood on her head and made some incredible saves that kept the Whale in the game and got them the win.

The shots of the game were 28 for the Riveters and 20 for the Whale. It could’ve been more, but both teams were blocking shots all over the ice in their respective defensive zones. A huge shout out goes to the entire Whale penalty killers; they did a really good job of keeping the Riveters to the outside and not giving them any significant opportunities. They made sure that the Riveters went 0 for 5 on the power play.

My 3 Stars of the Game

Meeri Räisänen: Once again, she was absolutely spectacular. A bit of bad luck on the Riveters first goal, but she bounced back nicely; and she was a brick wall for the rest of the game. She made 27 saves on 28 shots.

Katerina Mrázová: She has adjusted beautifully to the NWHL game and you can see that with every shift she takes. She moves the puck very well and she is always in the right areas in the offensive zone, as evidenced on the goal that she scored today.

Shannon Doyle: Truth be told, before she scored the goal, I was going to put her here anyway. I was very impressed all game with how she was performing in the defensive zone. She also had some great blocks on the penalty kill and made life very difficult for the Riveters. However, it was icing on the cake, when she scored that shot from the point.

The next game the Whale will be playing is again against the Riveters next Sunday at the Barnabas Health Hockey House at 2:00pm.

Boxscore

You can check out the boxscore of the game here:

https://www.nwhl.zone/game/show/22207031?subseason=512423

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