Sceptres dominate Fleet but can’t beat them on the scoreboard

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Almost everything looked in place. The start of the match was sold out. The team's leading defender returned to the lineup after missing the first match of the season.

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The Scepters even scored the first goal and completely dominated the first period.

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Then all this momentum came to an abrupt halt.

The Scepters spent much of the night bombarding the Fleet with waves of attack after attack, but after that opening goal from Blair Turnbull, shorthanded no less, the Scepters were unable to break through the shell that is Aerin Frankel, and the Fleet turned a lucky rebound and one bad zone coverage by the Scepters into a 3-1 win, spoiling Toronto's first goal.

Keep in mind that Fleet only took 12 shots the entire game, but they scored twice and then added an insurance marker into the empty net. Granted, the season is still young, but those 12 shots are the low end for any team to complete a full game this year.

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So on the one hand, the Scepters may be encouraged by how they stifled the opposition, but walking away with defeat despite such a display still hurts.

Here are our takeaways from a game that was an immediate pick for Sceptres but ended up in the loss column.

The defense was very, very good.

Aside from a third-period goal from Suzanne Tapani, who was left unmarked enough in the top slot to hit a behind-the-net feed that turned out to be the game-winning goal, Toronto gave Boston virtually nothing.

Ragan Kirk thwarted former Scepter forward Laura Kluge on a breakaway and stopped Jill Saulnier's first shot at a puck that bounced off Abby Newhook for the Fleet's first goal, but otherwise the Toronto goalie wasn't really tested.

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The defense in front of it and the forwards who dominated possession in the Boston zone made this game one-sided in the Sceptres' favor in every way except the final score.

Violation is not pressed yet

Of course, the absence of leading scorer Daryl Watts, who was sidelined with an upper-body injury after being hit in the first game, didn't help. But Troy Ryan and his staff knew from the start of training camp that the offense would have to run differently than it has in the past. The exodus of offensive talent through the expansion draft and free agency meant goodbye to Hannah Miller, who had been the linchpin of the power play, as well as contributors like Sarah Nurse, Julia Gosling and Izzy Daniel.

“We've got to get better offensively and we're not going to solve that problem in five or six games,” a pleased Ryan said after the game. “It's probably going to take a while. A team that usually has a lot of physicality or aggression or plays a high-energy game, sometimes having the composure to stay back on the weak side and watch things develop and then join the attack can benefit you. I don't think we did a good job on the weak side of the ice tonight.”

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Ryan has talked about improving his scoring chances and believes that will come with time. But on this night, they made it relatively easy for Frankel in the Boston goal to settle for more shots as Frankel sat firmly in her crease.

Power play needs improvement

For the second game in a row, the Scepters went 0 for 3 on the power play, and are now 0 for 6 on the season. Even handing out a gift with just over five minutes left when the Fleet got a whistle for too many players on the ice turned out to be a gift the Scepters were willing to return.

In this power play they failed to make a shot and it was life and death to even get into the opponent's offensive zone. There was nothing clear cut about it, and perhaps it shouldn't have been this early in the season.

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Ryan and his staff intentionally held back from presenting many concepts to the team so as not to overwhelm them too early. This was thought to have contributed to the poor start in each of the first two years, so they deliberately held things back this year. Once again, Watts' absence, especially on the power play, didn't help either.

Glory to the Maltese language

Emma Maltais has made the transition from wing to center almost seamlessly this season, and although she didn't get a goal on Saturday, the head coach noted her approach.

“I've been around Emma since she was a minor at the U18 level and it was probably the best, most mature 60 minutes of hockey I've seen him play,” Ryan said.

“She did a lot of little plays,” he said. “Used her energy when she needed to use her energy and used her composure when she needed to. She was available in a lot of games in midfield.”

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“I think she just played a more complete game than the more one-dimensional game that players sometimes play,” Ryan said.

The Maltese line of Natalie Spooner and Sarah Hjalmarsson (she replaced Watts) spent most of the night in the Boston zone, digging pucks and sending the rubber Frankel aside, but, like the rest of the team, failed to get anything past the Boston goalie, who stopped 24 or 25 shots.

Frankel factor

Since it was Frankel who threw stones at them, the feeling after the game was that the result was not so bad.

And while Frankel is as good as, if not better than, the third-best goalie in this league, Ryan would like to see his Scepters make her work a little harder than she does.

“When you're up against a goalie who plays strong and confident, you're not going to beat him very often in those little one-off or one-off matches,” he said. “You're going to have to turn your back on her and rip her eyes off and try to have a fight, and we probably didn't do that enough tonight.”

Further

The Scepters will host the Ottawa Charge at the Coca-Cola Coliseum on Thursday for puck drop at 7:00 p.m., before heading east to Halifax next Sunday for the Montreal Victoire's Takeover Tour, which kicks off at 6:30 p.m. ET.

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