BEAUTS PUSH POINT STREAK TO EIGHT GAMES IN
SHOOTOUT LOSS TO RIVETERS
| Scoring Summary | 1 | 2 | 3 | OT | SO | FINAL |
| 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
Newark, N.J. (March 3, 2019) – The Buffalo Beauts fell to the Metropolitan Riveters 4-3 in a shootout in New Jersey on Sunday in their final game of the regular season. The loss snapped the Beauts’ seven-game win streak, but Buffalo locked up the No. 2 seed for the Isobel Cup Playoffs with its win on Saturday. The team will host the No. 3 seed Boston Pride at Harborcenter for the first round of the playoffs.
Metropolitan goaltender Katie Fitzgerald was spectacular in Sunday’s game. She stopped 40 of 43 shots the Beauts put on goal, while the Riveters only mustered 17 on her counterpart Shannon Szabados.
Corinne Buie ripped a shot over the right shoulder of Fitzgerald just 22 seconds into the game to give Buffalo an early 1-0 lead. It would be the only goal either team scored in the opening period.
After the Beauts killed off a too-many players on the ice penalty, Metropolitan went almost nine minutes without registering a shot on goal. Buffalo’s offense, on the other hand, had plenty of chances and out-shot the Riveters 17-5 in the first 20 minutes of play.
Buffalo started the second period with another quick goal. Maddie Elia scored her league-leading 12th of the season after putting in a rebound off a shot from the point by Blake Bolden, giving the Beauts a 2-0 lead.
The Beauts’ lead would be cut in half a minute later after Amanda Kessel found a rebound and snuck a shot between Szabados’ blocker and the right post to make the score 2-1.
The Beauts and Riveters got called for a combined six penalties in final 10 minutes of the second period. Each team had a 5-on-3 advantage but failed to score.
Metropolitan’s Madison Packer scored to tie the game just six seconds into a power play after Dani Cameranesi was called for high sticking with 2:25 left in the second period. The Beauts racked up 32 shots through two periods to the Riveters’ 11, but the teams headed to the locker room for the second intermission tied 2-2.
Both teams continued to take penalties throughout the third period, but Buffalo’s power play failed to connect. The Beauts finished the afternoon 0-for-7 on the power play, while Metropolitan’s power play had its best game of the season.
Following an interference call on Lisa Chesson, Rebecca Russo put the Riveters ahead 3-2 after she banked in a rebound shot from below the goal line with 4:32 left in the third. Prior to the game, the Riveters hadn’t scored a power-play goal at home this season, but they converted two against the Beauts on Sunday afternoon.
Hayley Scamurra put home a one-timer off a pass from Savannah Harmon with 1:35 to go to tie the game and force overtime. Despite spending most of overtime with the puck in the Metropolitan zone, the Beauts failed to score and the game would head to a shootout after 65 minutes of play.
Elia scored in the second round of the shootout to give the Beauts a 1-0 lead, but Packar beat Szabados five-hole to keep the shootout going. The Riveters went ahead 2-1 in the shootout thanks to a goal from Miye D’Oench, who also beat Szabados five-hole. Fitzgerald then stopped Taylor Accursi in the fourth round to seal the win for Metropolitan.
The Beauts finished the regular season with a record of 11-4-1, just shy of their franchise-best 12-4-0 finish last season. They’ll now shift their focus to the playoffs and the Boston Pride. The first-round playoff game against Boston is scheduled for Saturday, March 9 at Harborcenter with puck drop set for 7:30 p.m.
