By Janet D Schultz, NYHOL
The Scoreboard at the Buffalo Beauts game Saturday may not have shown the outcome the team and fans wanted; but there were a lot of great things coming from that game.
First and foremost the Beauts take to the ice with a full 2021-22 schedule with fans in the stands.
That is followed by some history-making scoring.
“It was awesome to be playing again,” said Taylor Accursi. “We have the best fans in Buffalo and after someone gets a first goal in their first game they show their support.”
Taylor Accursi became the Beauts All Time Leading Scorer with a goal in the third period that gives her the record with 27 goals, 16 assists for 43 points.
“It was great, I didn’t think about it at the time just trying to do my best for the team,” said Accursi about her record-setting goal.
Jenna Suokko gave Accursi an assist and became the first Finnish player in the history of the PHF to record a point in the League and Missy Segall recorded her first professional goal in the PHF when she dropped the first goal of the Beauts season in at 19:01 of the first period.
“It felt really good to score the first goal and see the support by everyone,” said Segall.
The Toronto Six, the newest addition to the League and the first time Buffalo Fans got to see them in action, opened the scoring at 3:35 of the first when Shiann Darkangelo scored on the powerplay. The first period ended tied at 1-1.
Toronto opened the scoring in the second with a goal by Leah Marino and another by Lindsay Eastwood ending the second with Buffalo down by two.
The Beauts scored twice in the third with Accursi’s goal and one by Autumn MacDougall but just as everyone thought the teams were headed to overtime, Michela Cava scored at 19:00 on the powerplay for Toronto to capture the win with a 4-3 score.
First star went to Cava, second to Accursi and third to Toronto’s Mikyla Grant-Mentis who had two assists including one on the winning goal.
While Coach Rhea Coad didn’t get the outcome she wanted she saw a lot of good in the game.
“We had three goals from three different lines and that speaks how deep we are,” said Coach Coad. “It’s nice not to have to rely on the same players all the time.”
“We have a team full of leaders,” said Coad.
“This is a fast game and being able to roll all three lines is huge,” she continued.
This week the Beauts will focus on the repetitions and put them to memory so the players can react to situations without thinking.
Accursi feels that this team is the strongest since she has been here.
“From top to bottom we have a lot of different players that can do a lot of different things,” said Accursi. “I am really excited about this year because we have a special group. Wish we could have fixed the first two periods today but it is what it is.”
The Beauts will be on the road until December 18 when they return to the Northtowns Center to faceoff against the Connecticut Whale at 7 p.m. and again on Sunday, December 19 at 1 p.m.
“Being on the road becomes difficult but we like to be on the road and go into other people’s houses and mess things up,” said Accursi of the long road swing. “We obviously take advantage of the road warrior thing but it really doesn’t matter to us. Nothing changes for us.”
The team will be at the Metropolitan Riveters this Saturday and Sunday, November 20 and 21; on to Minnesota on December 11 and 12. Those games can be viewed on Twitch and PHF ESPN+. For information on how to access these venues go to https://www.premierhockeyfederation.com/
NYHOL will be tweeting out home games and posting news at nyhockeyonline on Facebook as well as providing news on our website www.nyhockeyonline.com
Six score final goal 
MacDougall scores 
Gehen 
Board battle 
Carly Jackson 
