Boston clinches regular season title with late goal, win over Connecticut

Connecticut’s Michaela Long scored her first two goals of the year but Boston still was able to get past the Whale Sunday, 5-3 in Stamford.

STAMFORD, Feb. 21 – If the Connecticut Whale hope to win a National Women’s Hockey League (NWHL) championship, they will need to learn to find a way to beat the Boston Pride.

The Pride clinched the 2016 regular season championship Sunday with a 5-3 come from behind win over the Whale at Chelsea Pier. Boston, which erased a two-goal deficit by scoring four goals in the third period, is 13-3-1 with one week remaining in the regular season. Two of the four goals were short-handed goals when Connecticut was on the power play.

Connecticut (12-5) lost for the fourth time in five games and all four losses have been to the Pride. The Whale’s only losses this year have come at the hands of Boston, which captured the six-game season series between the two teams, 5-1.

Brianna Decker had three goals and an assist for Boston while Hilary Knight had the game-winning goal with 2:22 left in regulation and two assists. Pride goalie Brittany Ott stopped 22 shots to improve her league-leading record to 12-1 in the net.

The Whale received two goals from Michaela Long – her first two goals of the season. Connecticut goalie Jaimie Leonoff, who won her first seven starts in net, made a season-high 42 saves in net but it wasn’t enough.

The Whale gave up a season-high 47 shots to Boston, which has peppered Connecticut goalies with shots the past five weeks. In the last four games, Connecticut has allowed 34, 37, 37 and 47 shots, respectively, by Boston.

Boston will be the No. 1 seed when the NWHL’s Isobel Cup playoffs begin on March 4-6. The Pride will host New York while Connecticut, the No. 2 seed will host Buffalo in a best-of-3 series at Chelesea Pier. The NWHL finals will be March 11-13 in Newark, N.J., at the Prudential Center’s practice rink.

The Whale took a 1-0 lead on the first goal of the season from Long only to see the Pride tie the game 30 second later on Decker’s goal off a Knight assist.

Connecticut extended its lead to 3-1 after two periods thanks to goals from Long and Stack. But Boston tied the game on a pair of short-handed goals from Decker and Emily Field in the third period in a span of four minutes. The Pride took their first lead of the game with 2:22 remaining with Knight scoring. Boston added an empty net goal in the final minute to stretch the lead to two.

Boston 5, Connecticut 3
At Stamford
Boston (13-3-1)              1  0  4  — 5
Connecticut (12-5)         1  2  0  — 3
First period
Connecticut 1, Michaela Long (Kelly Babstock, Kate Buesser), 9:33; Boston 1, Brianna Decker (Hilary Knight), 10:03; Penalties: Babstock (Connecticut), body checking, 0:00; Knight (Boston), tripping, 4:07; Kaleigh Fratkin (Connecticut), body chcking; Jillian Dempsey (Boston) 13:47, Kelli Stack (Connecticut), body checking, 17:43
Second period
Connecticut 2, Long (Jordan Brickner), 6:14; Connecticut 3, Kelli Stack, 12:00; Penalties: Kelly Cooke (Boston), tripping, 1:15; Rachel Llanes (Boston), tripping, 6:18; Sam Faber (Connecticut), tripping, 7:04; Danielle Ward (Connecticut), roughing
Third period
Boston 2, Decker (Knight), 12:12 (sh); Boston 3, Emily Field, 16:01 (sh); Boston 4, Knight (Jordan Smelker, Decker), 18:22; Boston 5, Decker, 19:09 (empty net); Penalties: Fratkin (Connecticut), body checking, 2:48; Ward (Connecticut), cross checking, 8:28; Marissa Gedman (Boston), body checking, 10:48; Zoe Hickel (Boston), high sticking, 15:50
Shots on goal: Boston 47 (11-20-16), Connecticut 22 (6-8-8)
Goalies: Boston, Brittany Ott (W 12-1), 22 shots, 19 saves; Connecticut: Jaimie Leonoff (L, 7-3), 46 shots, 42 saves

National Women’s Hockey League
                                    W-L-OL   Pts
Boston                         13-3-1      27
Connecticut                 12-5-0      24
Buffalo                           5-8-4      14
New York                     4-11-2      10
Sunday, Feb. 21
Boston 5, Connecticut 3
Buffalo 5, New York 1
Sunday, Feb. 28
Boston at Buffalo, 3:30 p.m.
New York at Connecticut, 6 p.m.
End regular season

Isobel Cup semifinals (best-of-3)
Friday, March 4
New York at Boston (Ray Bourque Rink, Beverly)
Buffalo at Connecticut, 7:10 p.m.
Saturday, March 5
New York at Boston
Buffalo at Connecticut, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 6
New York at Boston, if necessary
Buffalo at Connecticut, 6 p.m., if necessary

Isobel Cup finals
At Prudential Center practice facility-Newark, N.J.
Friday, March 11
Game 1, 7:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 12
Game 2, 7:30 p.m.
Sunday, March 13
Game 3, 1 p.m., if necessary