Five Takeaways from Week 6 of the PWHL: Battle on Bay Street smashes, stellar goaltending, Ottawa continues to struggle

It was an exciting handful of PWHL games coming out of the IIHF break. While some players were a little worse for wear following international duty, others rose to the occasion in a monumental week for the league.

Here’s a look at the week that was:

1. 19,285

On Friday night, 19,285 packed inside Scotiabank Arena for the inaugural Battle on Bay Street to watch Toronto beat Montreal 3-0. It blew multiple records, including the mark for highest-attended women’s professional hockey game, which was set when Montreal lost to Minnesota on Jan. 6.

Along with beating records set during the World Championship, Rivalry Series and Olympics, the game was monumental in proving to the remaining skeptics that people are not just willing to support the women’s game, but are eager to pay to see the best in the world play every night.

With the playoffs coming up, will the number get tested? It wouldn’t make any sense for Toronto to play its postseason games at the 2,600-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre.

2. Standing on their heads

Nearly overlooked in the exciting Battle on Bay Street was the excellent performance in net by Toronto’s Kristen Campbell. It was a shaky start to the season for the former Canadian National Team member, who might have been overworked early on.

However, the international break paid dividends, as Campbell posted a 30-save shutout against Montreal, her second goose egg of the season. The Brandon, Manitoba native also made 32 saves in a victory over Boston on Valentine’s Day and has won each of her last five starts. No wonder she earned our Goalie of the Week honors.

It would not be a week where we highlight goaltending without talking about New York’s Corinne Schroeder. Her team played just once last week, but that did not deter the former Boston Pride star from stealing a game.

Against Boston on Saturday, Schroeder did everything she could to pitch a shutout, coming up one shot short. However, her 34-save performance was good enough to help NY grab a big overtime win on the road.

In her seven starts, Schroeder has had to make 30 or more saves five times and is 4-1 when she hit that mark.

3. Ottawa can’t buy a win

It’s crazy that Ottawa is at the bottom of the league standings with just three regulation losses. However, with only two wins on their record, that is precisely where they are.

At home on Saturday, they outplayed Minnesota for most of the game but could not capitalize on their opportunities, losing 2-1. It marked the team’s fifth consecutive loss and second in a row to Minny. Each of their seven losses have come by one goal, with the four coming in overtime.

Both of Ottawa’s wins have come against provincial rival Toronto.

Ottawa has been unable to give goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer any goal support, scoring just six goals in their last four games and eight during the losing skid. There’s time for GM Michael Hirshfeld to move to add some scoring, with the trade deadline not until next month.

4. Shorthanded Minnesota has a busy week…

Coming out of the break, Minnesota would be without their star rookie, Taylor Heise, who suffered an upper-body injury during Game 7 of the Rivalry Series.

To make matters worse, the team had three games in five days. They started off by coming from behind to beat Ottawa on Wednesday, then riding a great performance from Nicole Hensley on Saturday to beat Ottawa again.

Things were even more challenging in the second half of their back-to-back on Sunday, as Liz Schepers was a late scratch, forcing Minnesota to play with 11 forwards against Montreal. Though Minnesota showed some fight, they came up one goal short of a perfect week.

Heise is day-to-day and is going to be reevaluated early this week after the team returns home.

5. Where’d the scoring go?

Even when Heise was in the lineup, one ongoing concern for Minnesota is their lack of finish. Over the last four games, the team has scored just six goals. The last time Minnesota scored more than two goals in a game was Jan. 27. During the team’s hot 4-0-1 start, they scored three goals in four of those games.

Minnesota looked to improve their defense when they traded for Sophie Jaques last weekend, but it came at the expense of their forward depth, as they sent Susanna Tapani to Boston.

Grace Zumwinkle still leads the team with nine points, and is tied for third in league scoring, but the former Golden Gopher’s game-winner against Ottawa last Saturday is her lone tally in the last five games.

The one consistent player has been captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, who has three goals and two assists in the last six games. She scored Minnesota’s only goal on Sunday.

While Minnesota is still hanging at the top of PWHL standings, it will be tough to keep the likes of Montreal and Toronto down if they cannot bring up their production.