NWHL’s Boston Pride Ready to Fight All the Way to the Isobel Cup
By Hamilton
In the National Women’s Hockey League’s 4th season, the fight for the Isobel Cup is turning into a gritty battle for victory. The season is halfway over for most teams and the Boston Pride have made it clear they are ready for another playoff run.
At the end of November, the Minnesota Whitecaps were clutching 1st place with a clean record of 6-0-0. That was until the Boston Pride, then 4-2-0, came into town on Dec. 1 and 2 and dragged the Whitecaps from their clean record in the NWHL with back-to-back losses.
Now the Pride and Whitecaps are tied for first, both with 12 points and a record of 6-2-0. Although equal in both points and wins, their gameplay differs and that’s where the Pride have the winning edge.
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Eight games into the season, the Pride have a goals per game (GPG) average of 4.25 goals a game. This has the Pride leading the league in GPG and second place, the Buffalo Beauts, is a whopping .96 away from the lead. In total so far, the Pride have scored 34 goals.
In the first two periods of the game, they have scored eight goals in each period, accounting for 16 of their 34 goals, leaving the remaining 18 goals to be scored in the third period alone. When the third-period puck drops, this team flips a switch and unleashes a beast.
The Pride’s offense is stacked. Various players have been leader in their college teams and on National teams. Just this past February, seven Pride players were apart of the USA Women’s Hockey Team that won the goal for the first time in 20 years.
Three Olympians remain on the Boston Pride and Haley Skarupa is one of them. After returning home from the Olympics, 24-year-old forward Skarupa signed with them and has been leading the girls, not just points but in energy too. She has 10 points (three goals and seven assists) in the seven games she has appeared in this season. Skarupa averages 1.43 points a game and has a +1 rating.
On the defensive side of things, leave it to Alyssa Gagliardi and Gigi Marvin. Marvin, a 31-year-old, is a three time Olympian who also won the gold in February. So far, Marvin has nine points this season (six goals and three assists) and a +7 rating in all eight games of the season.
Meanwhile, Gagliardi is a 26-year-old defenseman that doesn’t wrack in points. Rather, she blocks shots and worries about getting the puck out of dangerous territories. Gagliardi has just three points (one goal and two assists) in eight games but she has three blocked shots and a +2 plus/minus rating.
In between the pipes, goaltender Katie Burt, a 21-year-old rookie from Boston College, is showing the competition that even the new kid is not afraid of them. Burt was tremendous in college and carried the spectacular accomplishments with her into her NWHL career.
Currently, she is sitting with a .913 save percentage, and of the 196 SOG she has faced, she has only allowed 17 of them to get by. Burt will for sure going to be a crucial part of the upcoming final games leading to playoffs, especially if the Pride dream of holding the Isobel Cup once more.
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In 2016, the Pride became the first team to take home the Isobel Cup back in the NWHL’s inaugural year. They are fired up to get back to another victory and to be the first team to win the Cup twice. With the skill the Pride have and the trajectory course they’re taking, it’s no doubt that this team will sacrifice everything to get back to sweet victory.