The New York Riveters (1-3), made their first encounter with the Buffalo Beauts (1-3-0-1) count on Saturday afternoon, marking their first win on the season with a come from behind victory to defeat Buffalo 3-2. The game winner came on a late third period tally from the Riveters’ Miye D’Oench in the 18th minute of play to put New York ahead and seal the win.
Rebecca Russo struck first for the Riveters on an even strength goal in the early part of the first period, taking advantage of Buffalo’s unsuccessful breakout from their defensive zone. In a slight role reversal, Buffalo’s highest production came early in the game.
Halfway through the period, the Beauts answered back on a power play goal from Corinne Buie only seconds into the man advantage situation. In this first half of the season, Buie has truly shown her range, being a spark with nearly any line combination, but the recent pairing with Kourtney Kunichika and Harrison Browne has wielded some fantastic chemistry.
“Both Kourtney and Brownie are very skilled players; they’re grinders and I like working with them,” Buie remarked at the intermission. “We’re just going all out.”
But good chemistry wasn’t isolated to the Kunichika, Brown and Buie line; just under three minutes later, Emily Janiga added her third goal on the season, breaking in hard on the Riveters’ goal to put the Beauts up by one heading into the locker room.
The second period yielded no penalties or goals for either team, despite several chances at both ends of the ice. New York made excellent use of their speed and puck control from Russo in particular, to create chaos in front of Beauts netminder Brianne McLaughlin, but McLaughlin was up to the task each time turning away all four Riveters’ shots. Not to be outdone, Buffalo generated several opportunities as well, including a brief break in on the Riveters’ goal in the waning minutes of the period.
Kaleigh Fratkin was the difference for the Riveters in the third period however, knotting the score up at two on the power play and adding the helper to D’Oench’s eventual game winner.
The Riveters’ Katie Fitzgerald maintained steady between the pipes, snagging 27 saves throughout the game, including 11 in the final frame alone. The teams face off against one another again Sunday for the second of their back-to-back weekend, both looking to notch their second victory of the season as they near mid-November.
