Complacency has no place with these Toronto Sceptres in PWHL playoffs

National Post

08-05-2025

As good as Game 1 felt and with as many boxes as the Toronto Sceptres ticked for themselves in that 3-2 victory over the very familiar Minnesota Frost, satisfaction is just not a feeling they will allow themselves to have.
Article content
Article content
As many times as head coach Troy Ryan and his captain Blayre Turnbull mention how different this team is from the one that lost this series last year after building a 2-0 lead, those lessons from that playoff failure can't be ignored and, to the Sceptres' credit, aren't being ignored.
Article content
Article content
The issues facing Toronto coming into Game 1 were a lack of 5-on-5 scoring for much of the regular season, a power play that was in a funk to end the year and an opponent that had a penchant for putting a team away early, an area the Sceptres haven't been overly adapt at combatting.
Article content
In Game 1, all of those concerns were lessened.
Article content
Toronto outscored Minnesota 5-on-5 thanks to some determined work in the offensive zone, digging out pucks and creating opportunities that way.
Article content
The line of Turnbull, Hannah Miller and Jesse Compher led the way in that regard, creating the first goal off a battle won behind the net and then extending offensive zone time with some more determined play along the boards to the point that when Julia Gosling came on following a change, a fatigued and desperate Minnesota defender threw a puck up the middle that she easily picked off and walked in untouched, scoring off her own rebound.
Article content
It's the kind of payoff that Ryan has been preaching all season. Do the work early and you'll be rewarded. It won't always be you benefitting individually, but the team will.
Article content
The power play was back to a more traditional approach eschewing the tendency of getting bogged down with looking for the pretty play in favour of quick shots and outnumbering and outworking your opponent in the dirty areas to achieve success.
Article content
Article content
Gosling's second goal came on the power play and, while that was a cleaner goal on a nice drop pass from Miller, the majority of Toronto's power-play chances came with traffic in front of Nicole Hensley and then quick and repeated shots into that condensed area.
Article content
Article content
That they didn't score at all on a five-minute power play off the major assessed to Britta Curl-Salemme for a hit to the head of Toronto defender Renata Fast was a testament to Hensley, who stood on her head keeping the Toronto shooters at bay.
Article content
He called Toronto's tentative start to the game — both teams really — strategic and, by that, we believe he means it was that way intentionally to prevent Minnesota getting off to its traditional fast start.
Article content
'I liked our game honestly right from start to finish,' Ryan said. 'It doesn't mean there weren't little lulls or little downsides, but the game is not perfect. But I thought as a group, if you play 30 games like that in the regular season, you are going to have a ton of success. We played the way you have play to be successful in the playoffs and I liked that.'