After a hair-raising first tilt in season three, the Buffalo Beauts and Metropolitan Riveters squared off in Buffalo for their second meeting on Saturday night, concluding in yet another Metro win. The 6-3 tally not only maintains the Riveters’ position in first place, but for yet another week, sees their dominance continue to grow as the only unbeaten team in the NWHL.
The Beauts continued their homestand with their Military Appreciation Night, paying tribute to military veterans with an honorary puck drop between team captains Corinne Buie and Ashley Johnston.
The Riveters started off the scoring midway through the opening period with Bray Ketchum lighting the lamp for her first of the season followed by teammate Alexa Gruschow just over a minute later on a tip in the low slot off of a shot from Michelle Picard at the point. From the start, the Riveters would not give Buffalo goaltender Amanda Leveille an easy night, creating constant traffic in front of the net combined with heavy shots from anywhere they could take them.
But the Beauts answered back within less than a minute of Gruschow goal. NWHL rookie and Rochester native Katherine Donohue took advantage of the chaos in front of Riveter goaltender Katie Fitzgerald and buried a loose puck for her first professional goal and to bring the Beauts to within one. With the period winding down, Buffalo did not relent and continued to hunt for the equalizer and with only three minutes to go in the frame Kourtney Kunichika found it to send the teams to the locker rooms locked at two.
The pace remained fast as the teams returned to the ice in the second, each team exchanging rushes and flurries of shots throughout the period. Once again, Leveille was tested nearly every time Metro touched the puck in the Buffalo zone, including several blasts from the blueline to mimic the setup of the Riveters’ first goal. Leveille remained strong, turning away shots from everyone. Their persistence paid off when with just over sixteen minutes gone, Metro’s Jenny Ryan broke down the right side of the ice and slipped a shot in just past Leveille’s glove on the far side. But the celebration was short lived as seconds later, Hayley Scamurra picked up the puck in the neutral zone and danced in on Fitzgerald and company to roof the Beauts’ third of the night and deadlock the teams at three.
Despite the tie on the scoreboard, the shots heavily favored the Riveters and the tide was about to turn for the troops in red. Early on, Buffalo’s Kristin Lewicki showed fans what a smart and dynamic addition she’s been to the Buffalo roster, making several campaigns to goal and putting pressure on the Metro visitors; however, it was once again Gruschow who would get the Riveters back on the board in the third and for her second of the night.
The Beauts continued to take their chances, but it was Metro who maintained steam and would find two more tallies – a tip by Miye D’Oench (off of a Gruschow shot, for her third point of the night), and a quick shot from the left boards by Rebecca Russo to beat Leveille on the short side and put the game away for the Riveters.
“I mean, it’s obviously not the result that we wanted,” cited Leveille, after the final horn, “but it is just one game and we have a lot of season left. We’re going to go over the game and learn from our mistakes.”
The two teams have had more mismatched results this season than in years past, but will be able to close the gap when they meet again in New Jersey next month for Metro’s first home game of the series.
“They’re relentless on the forecheck,” Leveille noted, looking ahead for the next meeting. “They consistently put pressure on our [defense] and clogged up the middle, and then they get a lot of traffic in front and they go for the back door – and good on them, but we’ll adjust next time we play them.”
The teams return to action in the first week of December, with the Beauts on the road in Boston and the Riveters home to take on the Whale.
