BOSTON, MA (March 26, 2025) - The Toronto Sceptres rallied with four goals in the third period–– including three in just over six minutes–– to complete a comeback victory over the Boston Fleet at a sold out Agganis Arena on Wednesday evening. Daryl Watts led the way for Toronto with two goals in the period, while Renata Fast scored the game-winner for the Sceptres. Hilary Knight scored both goals for the Fleet, with Alina Müller and Susanna Tapani picking up the assists on both tallies.
Knight’s first goal opened the scoring late in the first period, and Boston maintained its one-goal lead until the third frame. At 4:07, Watts collected her first of the night, tying the game at one. Less than two minutes later, Hayley Scamurra put Toronto ahead 2-1 with her first goal of the season. Continuing the momentum, Fast gave the Sceptres a two-goal lead at 10:16 with what would be the eventual game-winner.
Knight scored her 15th of the season for Boston’s final goal of the game to cut Toronto’s lead to 3-2 but Watts sealed the 4-2 win for Toronto with a power play goal, her second marker of the game. Kristen Campbell made 28 saves on 30 shots for her ninth win of the season, while Aerin Frankel recorded 23 saves on 27 shots in the loss. With the win, second-place Toronto increases their lead over third-place Boston in the standings to five points. Following Montréal’s regulation win over Minnesota tonight, Toronto can become the second team to clinch a playoff berth with a single point in Sunday’s game against the Frost.
QUOTES
Toronto forward Hayley Scamurra on returning to Boston: “It’s been great. I’ve never played at this arena before, but just to be back in the city of Boston just took me back to my college days [at Northeastern University] and how far we’ve come in women’s hockey. It really made me reflect and I’m just so grateful for the league we have now and how much it’s grown since then, so it’s been a full circle moment and it’s great to have the win here for sure.”
Sceptres Head Coach Troy Ryan on the message sent to the team during the second intermission: “Not a whole lot to be honest. I think the only conversation was about a little adjustment on our breakouts – trying to use the middle a little bit more. The crankier conversation was after the first. We thought we came out well for the first five or six minutes and then were really flat after that for 20-25 minutes. It’s just out of character for us to have a performance like that.”
Boston Head Coach Courtney Kessel on the third period: “I think a few shifts in a row we couldn’t get the puck out, ends up in the back of our net. It’s from below the goal line, kind of hits off [Aerin] Frankel and goes in the net. It’s a little bit unfortunate, but you can never take a shift off in this league. Anything can happen in this league, so you have to show up every shift.”
Fleet captain Hilary Knight on her message to the team: “We can trust everybody in that room. It’s just critical plays of picking up a stick here, dropping coverage there, finding ourselves in the box when we shouldn’t be, just things like that. Obviously, it’s a game of minimizing mistakes and we go back to the drawing board and look forward to St. Louis at this point.”
NOTABLES
Tonight was the first game between these two teams since Feb. 14, 2024, that was won by the visiting team, ending a seven-game home-winning streak in the series.
All games in the series this season have been decided by multiple goals, with the winning team scoring at least three goals in each game. Toronto remains the league leader with nine multi-goal wins and is now tied for the most games with four or more goals, with seven such games.
The Sceptres have now won five of their past six road games (4-1-0-1) since Feb. 16.
Boston’s point streak comes to an end at nine. Their last regulation loss came against Toronto on Feb. 14.
This is the first time Toronto has won when trailing after two periods, having previously been 0-0-1-5 in such situations. It also marks Boston's first regulation loss when leading after two periods.
Kristen Campbell extended her streak of allowing two goals or fewer to nine games in what was her eighth consecutive start for the Sceptres.
Hilary Knight recorded two goals, extending her goal-scoring streak to three games, with all three being part of multi-point performances (4G, 3A). Knight has 11 points (7G, 4A) in her last five games and now sits atop the PWHL in scoring with 28 points, setting a new PWHL single season point record. Toronto’s Natalie Spooner had 27 points in 24 games during the inaugural season, while Knight tied and surpassed the mark in her 25th game of the season.
The Fleet captain is also in a four-way tie for most power play goals (4) and has taken sole possession of second place in goals (15) in the PWHL.
Daryl Watts scored her ninth and tenth goals of the season, tying her 24-game inaugural season mark, becoming the second player behind Montréal captain Marie-Philip Poulin to record back-to-back seasons with 10 or more goals. The Sceptres forward is now in sole possession of third in league scoring with 25 points.
Hayley Scamurra scored her first goal of the season in her 21st game, ending a streak as the league leader for most shots without scoring a goal after tallying on her 48th shot of the season. She has now recorded points in back-to-back games for the first time this season.
Renata Fast collected her sixth goal and third game-winner of the season as the only defender with multiple game-winning goals this year. She continues to lead defenders in scoring (21) and takes sole possession of second in defender goals (6).
In her 26th game of the season, Fast tied Ella Shelton's record for most points by a defender in a season (21), a mark the New York defender set last year in 24 games. Alina Müller recorded two assists, bringing her total to twelve on the season. She now has five multi-point games on the season and sits second in team scoring with 19 points.
Susanna Tapani had her second multi-point game in a row for the first time in her PWHL career with a pair of assists. The forward recorded a goal and an assist in Boston’s previous game, against Montréal on Mar. 18.
Kali Flanagan collected her fourth assist and sixth point to match her inaugural season total in two additional games.
Anna Kjellbin recorded her second assist in three games since being acquired by Toronto in a trade from Montréal on Mar. 13. The defender had one assist in 18 games with the Victoire prior to the trade.
Blayre Turnbull has collected an assist in back-to-back games for the first time since the inaugural season when she had a career-high four-game assist streak from Mar. 2 – Mar. 17, 2024.
Jesse Compher recorded her eighth helper, beginning a two-game point streak and extending her road point streak to four games.
Laura Kluge collected her first career PWHL point–– an assist––in the ninth game of her career and becomes the first player from Germany to record a point in the PWHL.
Hannah Miller tallied her fourteenth helper of the season and her first point against the Fleet since the season-opening game on Nov. 30, 2024.
The Knight and Müller duo connected for two goals in the game, while the Watts and Miller pairing combined for one goal. Both duos are tied for the most assist-to-goal combinations (10) in the league.
Sarah Nurse’s point streak ended at five games.
The Sceptres now lead the league with the most regulation wins (4) when allowing the first goal of the game.
Both of Boston’s games at Agganis Arena this season have been sell outs.
SCORESHEET RECAP
Toronto 0 0 4 - 4
Boston 1 0 1 - 2
1st Period-1, Boston, Knight 14 (Müller, Tapani), 16:28 (PP). Penalties-Morin Bos (hooking), 4:42; Turnbull Tor (interference), 15:34; Munroe Tor (boarding), 17:31; Schafzahl Bos (holding), 18:57.
2nd Period- No Scoring.Penalties-Fast Tor (hooking), 12:14.
3rd Period-2, Toronto, Watts 9 (Flanagan), 4:07. 3, Toronto, Scamurra 1 (Kjellbin, Turnbull), 5:41. 4, Toronto, Fast 6 (Compher, Kluge), 10:16. 5, Boston, Knight 15 (Tapani, Müller), 12:53. 6, Toronto, Watts 10 (Miller), 16:26 (PP). Penalties-Digirolamo Bos (roughing), 15:51; Keller Bos (holding), 15:51; Babstock Bos (match-attempt/injure), 19:57.
Shots on Goal-Toronto 6-9-12-27. Boston 12-11-7-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Toronto 1 / 5; Boston 1 / 3.
Goalies-Toronto, Campbell 9-6-2-1 (30 shots-28 saves). Boston, Frankel 12-5-3-0 (27 shots-23 saves).
A-6,028 (sold out)
THREE STARS
- Kristen Campbell (TOR) 28/30 SV
- Hilary Knight (BOS) 2G
- Daryl Watts (TOR) 2G
STANDINGS
Toronto (12-2-5-7) - 45 PTS – 1st Place (tied)
Boston (8-6-4-7) - 40 PTS – 3rd Place
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Boston: Saturday, March 29 vs. Ottawa at 2 p.m. ET (Enterprise Center, St. Louis)
Toronto: Sunday, March 30 at Minnesota at 1 p.m. ET