Ottawa's Gabbie Hughes (17) and Hayley Scamurra (14) fight for the puck against New York's Alexandra Labelle (13) during second period PWHL hockey action in Ottawa on Wednesday, Feb. 28, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick
OTTAWA – Gabbie Hughes scored the game winner with 4:04 remaining in the third period Wednesday night to lead Ottawa to a 4-2 win over New York in Professional Women’s Hockey League action.
With the win, Ottawa – losers of seven of its last eight coming into the game – moved into fifth place in the standings and are just two points back of Boston for the fourth and final playoff spot.
Savannah Harmon, Fanni Garat-Gasparics and Lexie Adzija, with an empty-net goal, also scored for Ottawa (3-0-4-5). Emerance Maschmeyer stopped 24 shots.
Hughes scored the winner off her backhand from in close sending the 6,889 at TD Place to their feet.
Chloe Aurard and Jaime Bourbonnais scored for New York (2-4-2-4), while Abigail Levy made 26 saves.
Trailing 2-1, Bourbonnais scored the equalizer for New York on the power play at 9:28 of the third. With an assist on the play Alex Carpenter, who leads the league in scoring, extended her point streak (5G, 3A) to six games.
Leading 1-0 to start the second Ottawa had a number of great chances to extend the lead, but Akane Shiga fanned on one chance and Adzija shot wide on another before Garat-Gasparics scored a jailbreak goal at 10:12 picking up her own rebound for her first point of the season.
New York cut the lead back to one after Zoe Boyd’s stick broke on a clearing attempt giving Aurard a clear shot.
Abby Roque was assessed a game misconduct as a result of a checking from behind penalty, but Ottawa was unable to capitalize on the five-minute player advantage.
Ottawa opened the scoring with an unconventional goal. Initially, it looked like the play was being whistled for a stoppage, but upon review Harmon’s shot to the short side had slipped behind Levy.
NOTES
Coming into the game Ottawa and New York had the most lethal powerplays in the PWHL and have combined to score 16 goals with the advantage. Ottawa has nine power play goals for a 24.3% success rate, compared to New York’s seven power play goals and 19.4% efficiency.
UP NEXT
Ottawa takes on Toronto Saturday, March 2.
New York hosts Minnesota Sunday, March 3.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2024.
