By Warren Kozireski —
Third year pro Aerin Frankel showed once again why she is considered one of the best goaltenders in the Professional Women’s Hockey League as her Boston Fleet played in Buffalo in late February as part of the league’s Takeover Tour.
She made 37 saves over 65 minutes and then stopped all five shootout attempts by the New York Siren in the win.
“We trust each other and I think we’ve been building a lot of momentum these past few games and finding our team identity along the way,” Frankel said in the postgame press conference. It’s not a fun game if I only face five shots so those are the games that are more fun and getting the win is the most important thing.”
“We know what she can do and we’re very confident in her every day…we’re lucky to have her,” teammate Hannah Brandt said.
Frankel left her Westchester area home and Horace Greely High at 16 years old to play at Shattuck St. Mary’s for three seasons where her highest season goals against average was 1.20.
Then it was off to Northeastern University in Boston as a true-freshman where she played for five seasons winning the Patty Kazmier Award—the highest honor for a women’s college hockey player—in her fourth year when she posted a miniscule .81 goals against average and otherworldly .965 save percentage.
In two of her seasons with the Huskies, she crossed over on the men’s side with Buffalo Sabres prospect goaltender Devon Levi.
“She is unbelievable, she can stop the puck, she is really good,” Levi said. “I had a few conversations with her at when I was at school. She was a historic Northeastern goaltender; she broke all the records and it was really cool to be on other side of that watching.
“We respect each other’s games as smaller goalies compared to everyone else in the league…I love how she plays.”
This season Frankel through 15 games stood second in the PWHL among starters with a 1.89 GAA and .933 save percentage. She has ten of the Fleet’s 11 wins.
“She’s the best goalie in the world and countless times she has kept us in games and kept us rolling through playoffs last year,” Boston head coach Courtney Kessel said. “She’s just so steady and never too high or too low, you always get the same effort from her and a tremendous goalie leader for our other two.
“I think sometimes our players lean on her a bit too much at times. We’d like to lean on her a little bit less, but there is always confidence that Frankel is going to get the job done.”
(Photos provided by Boston Fleet)
