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No luck for New York in shutout loss to Ottawa in Bridgeport

Ottawa’s Emily Clark (26) drives the puck toward the goal in Wednesday night’s PWHL game in Bridgeport. It was the fourth game of the season for New York in the Connecticut arena. (Photo courtesy PWHL)

The Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) New York franchise isn’t finding much success on the ice at Bridgeport’s Total Mortgage Arena.

Brianne Jenner had a goal and an assist and Emerance Maschmeyer earned her first shutout of the season as Ottawa won 3-0 against New York on Wednesday night in front of 1,702 fans.

New York falls to 0-4 on the ice in Bridgeport and it is the final scheduled game for the franchise in Connecticut, according to the PWHL schedule. There are two home games on the New York schedule against Boston (April 21) and Ottawa (April 30) that have no location announced yet.

New York (6-12) has played four games at UBS Arena, the home of the NHL’s New York Islanders and has two more games scheduled there. A game against Toronto on April 24 was originally set to be played in Bridgeport but has been moved to UBS Arena, the league announced Monday.

With the win, Ottawa (7-12, 27 points) moved into fourth place in the PWHL with the top four teams earning spots in the playoffs. New York (6-12, 17), which has lost seven consecutive games, is 10 points behind Ottawa with six games remaining.

Jenner started the play that led to the game’s first goal, stealing the puck off a New York player’s stick in the high slot. She then found former Connecticut Whale forward Kateřina Mrázová inside the right circle who backhanded a pass to the far side of the net to Daryl Watts, who tapped the puck in to give her team a 1-0 lead.

The score remained 1-0 until 2:37 remaining in the third period when Jenner factored into the scoresheet again, with her fourth goal of the season.

After receiving the outlet pass from Jincy Roese, Jenner entered the offensive zone and attempted a pass across to Mrázová, which a New York player got a stick on. Ottawa’s captain was able to regain possession of the puck in the slot before roofing a wrist shot past Abbey Levy to make the game 2-0.

Emily Clark iced the game for Ottawa with an empty net goal at 18:58 of the final frame, her fourth goal of the season. Mrázová collected her second primary assist of the game on the goal and moves into fifth in league scoring.

Maschmeyer made 26 saves for the shutout and her sixth win, which moves her into a tie with Minnesota’s Nicole Hensley for second-most victories in the PWHL, behind league leader Kristen Campbell (TOR) who has 12.

Levy also made 26 saves in the loss. New York has now lost seven straight games.

“With a loss you can always do more,” New York forward Jess Eldridge said. “That’s first and foremost. We play a team sport, and we have to try to find ways to get the puck in the back of the net. We’re pushing. We’re going to continue working and it’ll fall our way eventually.”

The biggest crowd of the four games in Bridgeport came on January 28 when Minnesota beat New York, 2-1 in OT on a Sunday afternoon in front of 2,393 fans. New York drew 2,152 in their first game in Bridgeport on January 5 in a 3-2 loss to Toronto and 728 fans in a 4-3 loss to Montreal on March 6.

Material from PWHL Communications included in this report

Ottawa 3, New York 0
At Bridgeport
Ottawa (7-12)           1  0  2  – 3
New York (6-12)      0  0  0  – 0
First period
1, Ottawa, Watts 5 (Mrázová, Jenner), 17:31. Penalties-Zandee-Hart Ny (interference), 3:45; Hughes Ott (hooking), 5:45; Bourbonnais Ny (boarding), 7:23.
Second period
No Scoring. Penalties-Mrázová Ott (tripping), 0:54; Woods Ny (tripping), 2:33; Scamurra Ott (roughing), 19:38.
Third period
2, Ottawa, Jenner 4 (Roese, Gilmore), 17:23. 3, Ottawa, Clark 4 (Mrázová, Snodgrass), 18:58 (EN). Penalties-Vanišová Ott (major-boarding, game misconduct), 7:18; Saulnier Ny (roughing), 7:18; Roese Ott (interference), 9:15.
Shots on goals: Ottawa 29 (15-8-6), New York 26 (5-11-10); Power play: Ottawa 0-3, New York 0-5; Goalies-Ottawa, Maschmeyer 7-6-4-1 (26 shots-26 saves). New York, Levy 1-4-2-0 (28 shots-26 saves). A-1,702

Gerry deSimas, Jr., is the editor and founder of The Collinsville Press. He is an award-winning writer and has been covering sports in Connecticut and New England for more than 40 years. He was inducted into the New England High School Wrestling Hall of Fame in 2018.

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