OTTAWA — Carla MacLeod isn’t concerned about her team’s lack of scoring.
It was an interesting point of view from the Ottawa Charge head coach following her team's 3-0 loss to the New York Sirens on Monday night.
MacLeod spoke of the need for her Professional Women's Hockey League team to be grittier at the net and maybe a little quicker to shoot, but was pleased to get 31 shots on goal and feels the team is generating offensively.
“So, you just take it in stride and recognize there’s still a lot of positives happening for us,” said MacLeod. “We’ve just got to find the back of the net.”
Give credit where it’s due. New York’s Kayle Osborne was solid, stopping 31 shots for her first professional shutout.
It was a special moment for the 22-year-old who grew up in Barrhaven, a suburb just outside of Ottawa, and had more than 25 family and friends on hand to support her.
“It’s pretty cool to do it in your hometown,” said Osborne. “We really needed a big game on the road tonight and we’re at the end of a long road trip so, I think our team play tonight was pretty good.”
MacLeod would have liked it if her team made life a little more difficult for Osborne and says it’s something they’ll work on.
After 13 games Ottawa is averaging 1.84 goals-per-game and has scored the fewest goals (24) of all six teams in the PWHL.
“If you don’t score goals you’re not going to win games,” said Ottawa’s Jincy Roese. “So, there’s always that pressure to score, but we wouldn’t be here if we couldn’t handle a little bit of pressure.”
With a 5-0-2-6 record the Charge currently hold the final playoff spot. With 17 games remaining the belief is there’s lots of time to improve that standing.
“You have to understand in this league is the volatility of the standings will always be,” MacLeod said. “It’s what makes this league great. In six games we’re going to look here and be like 'where are we now?'"
Ottawa has two more games before the international break and will look to build off Tuesday’s effort.
New York benefited from a lucky bounce on its opening goal early in the first. Chloe Aurard put a shot on goal and Emerance Maschmeyer attempted to deflect it and the puck landed in her own net. It was the Sirens first shot on goal.
“It’s nice to get a bounce like that,” admitted Sirens head coach Greg Fargo. “It seems like, you know, you’ve got to earn those. Great to be up 1-0 in that moment, but more than that I really liked what we were doing to start the game. How heavy we were, just how connected we were and sticking to the plan.”
New York made it 2-0 with a power-play goal midway through the first. Jessie Eldridge made a behind the back pass to Alex Carpenter to beat Maschmeyer short side.
“It was a great play by everybody on the ice,” Carpenter said. “You know, I was just the one at the end to put it in. Tremendous play by Ella (Shelton) and Jessie.”
Maschmeyer, who made 17 saves, provided solid goaltending the rest of the way, but the Charge just couldn’t find a way to solve Osborne.
New York scored its league-leading 10th power-play goal in the third after Ottawa’s Tereza Vanisova took a major for boarding and Gabbie Hughes took a minor for boarding. Eldridge looked to make a cross-crease pass but the puck deflected off Ronja Savolainen’s skate and came right back to Eldridge, who scored her fourth.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 27, 2025.
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press