The Boston Fleet continue their push toward the top of the PWHL. After a slow start to the season the Fleet have quickly become one of the toughest teams to play in the PWHL. Tuesday, they beat first place Montreal 3-2 in a shootout to continue that trek.
A big part of that turnaround has come from the play of Hilary Knight and Alina Muller. After not registering a point in her first eight games of the season, Muller has climbed to 11th overall in league scoring with 17 points in her next 15 games. Tuesday in Lowell, Muller scored a critical shootout goal for Boston to keep them in the contest. Knight struggled to find her way in the PWHL’s first season scoring only 11 points in 24 games.
This season the Boston Fleet captain had 13 goals and a league leading 26 points in 24 games. She added to that total with a goal and an assist against Montreal on Tuesday.
The turnaround from season to season for Knight, and within this season for Muller has powered the Fleet. Boston now sits only five points back from Montreal, and they’ve created a four point gap between themselves and third place Toronto.
Boston Continues To Win Tight Games
It was Boston’s 10th overtime decision through 24 games this season. They continue to find themselves in one goal games, but it’s experience that will serve the Fleet well come playoffs. It did last season when Boston eliminated Montreal in the opening round of playoffs.
“We saw it in playoffs last year as well, lots of overtime,” said Boston head coach Courtney Kessel. “They’re a very structured team, hard to get pucks to the net. We seem to have it out for each other, a little bit of a rivalry… We have six games left so we can’t get complacent at all. We’ve had a good stretch here in the last twelve or so games, but we’re not done. I think this is just the start of us getting our confidence.”
Important Win For Soderberg
Emma Soderberg has appeared in five games this season. Tuesday’s shootout victory however, was her first win of the season. That included her most recent start, that saw Soderberg pulled in favour of third goaltender Klara Peslarova, who came in and won. For a team that has been riding Aerin Frankel from start to finish, getting Soderberg confidence heading to playoffs is key.
