Can The Toronto Sceptres Risk Another Kristen Campbell Start?
Death and taxes. Toronto hockey and goaltending questions. They're all certainties.
While the Toronto Maple Leafs dominated these headlines for decades (and they still have had their share of goaltending questions this playoff run), this time around, it's the Toronto Sceptres joining the conversation.
Kristen Campbell is known as a flow goaltender. When she finds her groove, she's as solid as anyone. Last year that resulted in Campbell earning PWHL Goaltender of the Year honors. When she's out of her groove, few fall harder. Unfortunately for Campbell, these slumps have often come at inopportune times, including in recent attempts to earn time with Team Canada at the Rivalry Series, and in their national team camps.
This time around, after a steady season between the pipes for the Sceptres, and a strong win in game one of the 2025 Walter Cup playoffs, Campbell has stumbled mightily.
In game one, Campbell stopped 24 of 26 shots for a respectable 2.00 GAA and 0.923 save percentage.
In games two and three? Campbell posted a 6.15 GAA and .755 save percentage. It included a 5-3 and a 7-5 loss to the Minnesota Frost. Toronto has gone from up 1-0 to down 2-1 in their best-of-five series in a blink.
Now only one loss away from a second straight upset at the hands of the Minnesota Frost, the question becomes...
It wasn't just the number of goals Kristen Campbell has allowed, it's how she's allowed them. In both of the last two games, Campbell has allowed goals on shots she'd clearly want back, and that fall into being expected saves. The problem in sports however, is that you can't have them back, and expected doesn't equate to outcome.
From shots hitting Campbell in the glove, to the inability to smother rebounds, to pucks seemingly finding their way directly through Campbell's body without a screen, it's been a challenge to watch the reigning PWHL Goaltender of the Year struggle.
Toronto, however, is in a precarious spot. Their backup, Raygan Kirk remains on long term injured reserve, and beyond Campbell, the remainder of Toronto's netminding group, CJ Jackson and Kassidy Sauve, have a combined total of one career PWHL appearance to their names. That game came in the final week of the season when Jackson earned a 25 save shootout win over the New York Sirens in their PWHL debut.
There's no easy answer here for the Sceptres. In all likelihood, Troy Ryan will run it back once again with Campbell and hope for the best. It's a risk.
Jackson has been the goalie on the bench for the Sceptres, and in Sunday's 7-5 loss, it was surprising Toronto didn't give their current backup a shot.
Sauve had a spectacular year in the SDHL with SDE HF posting a 1.83 GAA and .940 save percentage before stealing a playoff series from MoDo. But putting in a goaltender who has never even backed up a game in the PWHL would be the type of risk that threatens a coaches job, not just the outcome of a series or game. There's no doubt Sauve is capable, but it's not a move almost any coach would make.
In any other world, CJ Jackson should be in the crease for game four. But the goaltending environment in the PWHL isn't any other world. What's more likely, is Kristen Campbell gets one more shot to prove she can be a big game goalie. It will come in a must-win situation, or the season is over for the Toronto Sceptres.
The weight of two seasons is resting on Campbell's shoulders with a win or go home game four ahead.
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