SAINT PAUL, MN (March 16, 2024) – Michela Cava had her first multi-goal game of the season and Minnesota cruised to a 5-1 victory over New York on Saturday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.
The victory was Minnesota’s fourth in a row, their longest winning streak of the season.
Cava now has three goals in her last two games after recording one in her first 15 games of the season.
It was Cava who got Minnesota on the board first, at 8:32 of the first period, which gave her team a 1-0 lead.
After Minnesota won the faceoff, Cava recovered the puck and fed Natalie Buchbinder at the point. The defender skated around a New York player, and Cava collected the puck—which had been knocked loose—in the left circle. She took a wrist shot which beat New York goaltender Corinne Schroeder underneath her blocker.
Cava scored her second goal of the game at 8:50 of the third period, which extended her team’s lead to 4-1. The goal came on a 2-on-1, as Cava roofed a wrist shot over Schroeder’s glove after receiving the puck from Taylor Heise, who had two assists in the game. Kendall Coyne Schofield added a helper on the play and had two points in the contest.
Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle extended her point streak to five games with her ninth goal of the season, scored at 9:35 of the first, just over a minute after Cava’s marker made the game 1-0. The goal came by way of a deflection off Sophie Jaques’ shot from the point. Lee Stecklein collected the secondary assist on the play.
New York nearly came to within one during a 4-on-4 with less than two minutes to go in the first period, with Ella Shelton ringing a shot off the crossbar after Alex Carpenter fed the defender for a partial break on a 2-on-1 rush.
Claire Butorac made the game 3-0 at 9:13 of the second period with her first PWHL goal.
After Butorac stopped a New York clearing attempt, she took a shot from the right circle, which went off the far-side post and in. Sydney Brodt recorded the assist on the play in what was her first PWHL game after suffering an injury in the preseason, which landed her on LTIR for Minnesota’s first 17 games.
Abby Roque made the game 3-1 with a powerplay goal at 18:20 of the second period, her fourth tally of the season. With possession in the offensive zone, Carpenter fed Jessie Eldridge, who took a one-timer from the top of the circle, which Roque was able to deflect past Maddie Rooney.
Coyne Schofield got her second point of the game and sixth goal of the season just 16 seconds after Cava’s second tally made the game 4-1.
Heise started the play, intercepting the puck just inside New York’s blueline. She then found Zumwinkle on the wing, who fed Coyne Schofield as she was heading to the net. Minnesota’s captain got her stick on the puck at the top of the crease, which sailed over Schroeder’s shoulder and made the game 5-1.
Rooney made 20 saves in the win— her third straight victory. Schroeder had 35 saves in the loss.
Up next, New York hosts Ottawa for a game at Bridgeport’s Total Mortgage Arena on March 20. Minnesota will play host to Montréal on March 24 at Xcel Energy Center.
Postgame Quotes:
Minnesota head coach Ken Klee: “I don’t think we were comfortable having a two-goal lead. They have elite players like Alex Carpenter and Abby Roque. The goal they had, they made a great play, but we played hard tonight, and you could tell [we] were into it right away with our energy and our speed. We talked about how important these points are for us at home, so it’s definitely good for us.”
Claire Butorac on scoring her first goal: “This is the best league in the world right now, 150 of the best players on the ice, so I’m just happy to be out there— but obviously the first one feels good. Every night we take the ice as a team — and we really are a team — we get contributions from top to bottom and we take pride in that every time we play.”
Maddie Rooney on her team’s play: “Our defense is playing great, tonight they kept a lot of shots to the outside and when the rebound was there they did a great job of clearing it. I thought we were breaking out well tonight too and the defense was a big contributor to that.”
Notes:
- Attendance: 9,006 Xcel Energy Center, Saint Paul, MN.
- Three Stars: 1) Michela Cava 2) Maddie Rooney 3) Claire Butorac
- Shots ended 40-21 in favor of Minnesota—They outshot New York in each period (13-5/14-8/13-8)
- Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle led all players with eight shots on goal to tie her season-high —Teammates Sophie Jaques and Kendall Coyne Schofield finished second with five shots each.
- Jessie Eldridge, Jill Saulnier and Elizabeth Giguère had three shots each, the most among New York players.
- Minnesota was 0/3 on the powerplay — New York was 1/3.
- New York’s Alex Carpenter now has nine powerplay points, Abby Roque has seven, and Eldridge has six, the top PP producers in the league—Ottawa’s Kateřina Mrázová also has six PP points.
- Minnesota’s four-game winning-streak sits second behind Toronto’s current nine-game streak as the longest in the PWHL.
- Minnesota has now won nine of 10 games when they score the first goal.
- Five goals are the most Minnesota has scored in a game all season — They’ve scored 13 goals in their last three games.
- Minnesota’s first period goals scored 1:03 apart were the fastest two goals the team has scored all season until their third period goals scored 16 seconds apart – Two goals in 16 seconds ties the PWHL season record set by Toronto against Minnesota on Feb. 3.
- Zumwinkle (2G, 5A) extended her point streak to five games — She now sits in a tie for third in PWHL scoring with Natalie Spooner, with 16 points.
- Zumwinkle collects her fourth game-winning-goal of the season, moving her into first place in the category in the PWHL — Her ninth goal of the season moves her into sole possession of second place in the league, three behind league-leader Natalie Spooner.
- Coyne Schofield now has 13 points on the season, moving her into a tie for fifth in league scoring — She has a three-game point streak (2G, 3A) and has recorded back-to-back multi-point games.
- Heise has a three-game point streak (1G, 4A) recording her second multi-point game in a row.
- Natalie Buchbinder extends her point streak to three games.
- Kelly Pannek’s point streak ends at four games.
- Buchbinder, Coyne Schofield, and Heise all recorded plus-3 ratings – Coyne Schofield is now tied with teammate Susanna Tapani for the league-lead at plus-11.
- Sydney Brodt played 6:12 in her first game of the season after returning from LTIR.
- Corinne Schroder made 35 saves for the second straight game against Minnesota.
- New York’s six game losing streak is the longest in the PWHL this season — Their four-goal loss is the largest margin for the team this season.
- Minnesota (8-3-3-4) now has 33 points on the season and moves into sole possession of first place after entering the game in a three-way tie with Toronto and Montréal — Toronto has two games in hand and Montréal has one.
- New York (2-4-3-8) remains in sixth place with 17 points, three behind Ottawa and Boston heading into their Saturday night game in Detroit.
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