Ottawa Charge win Game 3 to put Boston Fleet on the brink

OTTAWA — It looked like Erin Frankel was holding the puck in her glove. Then, suddenly, she didn’t.

The Fleet World Goalie attempted to cover Runja Savolainen’s shot that bounced off the boards behind the net, but it had an unusual bounce and slid over the goal line with 28 seconds left, giving the Ottawa Charge a 2-1 victory over the Fleet in front of a record 13,112 fans.

The Fleet outscored Ottawa, 37-22, including 17-5 in the second period, and forward Rebecca Leslie said her team wasn’t happy with the way they played. However, Ottawa took a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five Walter Cup semifinal series. Boston faces a do-or-die Game 4 when the teams return to the Canadian Tire Center at 3 p.m. on Sunday.

The Fleet win sets up a winner-take-all matchup Tuesday night at Lowell’s Tsongas Center.

“It’s a five-game series for a reason,” Fleet coach Chris Spar said. “That’s all I can say.”

Sparry said he’s not worried about Frankel and doesn’t plan to address the critical goal with her.

But it was an unusual series for the goaltender, who entered the playoffs as the tournament’s MVP after posting a 1.17 goals-against average and scoring a league-leading eight goals in the regular season. In three playoff games, Frankel has conceded five goals on 60 shots — a save percentage of .917 compared to .953 in the regular season.

On the other hand, goalkeeper in charge Gwyneth Phillips found a higher pace. The fleet didn’t expect to hit it cleanly, especially after that Losing the match 2 They had 20 chances to score in the first division and only got one chance. It was the same story on Friday night, as they created chance after chance right in front of the crease but struggled to take it.

Phillips, who supported Frankel when Team USA won the gold medal At the Milan Olympicsmade stunning saves time after time early in Friday’s game as the Fleet had 26 shots on goal over the two periods, including a paddle save on Rattray’s sweeping chance late in the middle frame.

Sparre said after Game 2 that if they played that game exactly 10 times, the Fleet would rank first in nine of them. However, Friday’s game presented itself in remarkably similar fashion, and the Fleet ended up losing.

The coach said he didn’t want to change anything.

“Just keep repeating the same play, playing hard, getting pucks into the dirty areas of the ice, controlling the offensive zone like we’ve been doing,” he said. “In the end you hope it wears them down, and you score the second and third goals we have been waiting to see.”

For the third time in three games, the Charge scored first, leaving Boston racing to play catch-up.

Ottawa coach Carla McLeod said after the game there’s no secret to it beyond just trying to score pucks on net, but it’s an unusual pattern for the Fleet, which has scored first in 23 of its 30 regular-season games.

With Jamie Lee Rattray’s penalty expired in the first period, Ottawa maintained possession in the offensive zone, and Vanoza Kadyrova fired a wrist shot past Frankel at 13:33.

“It’s never fun to play from behind,” Sparry said. “We have to find a way to get this thing over the line so we don’t have these one-goal games.”

In the six-day long break since Game 2, the Fleet has worked to hamper Phillips’ vision, win the net-forward battle, and crash the net for second-chance opportunities. The last is how Schippers tied up the match.

Shay Maloney fired over Phillips, who blocked a shot, but Schippers flew in to clean up the rebound 5:11 into the second period.

Shippers is He’s no stranger to scoring in the playoffshaving scored the decisive goal for Minnesota that won each of the first two Walter Cups. Friday’s tally 5:11 into the second period marked her first career playoff point this year, and the assist was Maloney’s first career playoff point.

“My role is to continue to reassure the girls that we are doing the right things,” Schippers said. “We can’t do much otherwise [putting] A few more balls in the net here.