Denna Laing drops the ceremonial puck wearing the best boots in the house. Image used with permission from the Pride. Credit: Michelle Jay
The atmosphere of the Pride’s Fan Appreciation and Denna Day celebration and 5-1 win at Warrior Ice Arena in Boston was electric. Fans cheered and sang along to favorite classics. The ceremonial puck was dropped by Denna Laing, one of the three Laing sisters to sign with the Pride (little sister Lexi Laing still wears number 16). Denna, paralyzed in a Pride game in 2015, comes every year to drop the puck for the Pride and has become a powerful figure in the hockey community for her resilience, advocacy, and promotion of women in hockey.
While Friday the Pride showed they could come from behind to win a close game, Saturday they flexed their depth and just plain dominated in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Whitecaps. Both teams looked energized from last night’s close game, but it became clear as the game wore on that the Whitecaps were drained from their strong performance the night before. They did manage to hold the Pride to only 1 goal until midway through the second period when Jillian Dempsey really opened the game up with a beautiful little give and go play with Loren Gabel to make it 3-0.
The Minnesota Whitecaps did get one back late in the 3rd to ruin Corinne Schroeder’s chances to tie the career record of shutouts owned by injured Whitecaps goalie Amanda Leveille. That does not stop her from breaking the season record for wins in today’s game. With two more games the chance still remains that she could tie the career record in her rookie season, but those games are with second-ranked Toronto Six, so that possibility might be a bit of a stretch. Still it certainly feels like more of a “when” than “if” she will catch Laveille.
The Pride buried two more in the 3rd themselves despite a goalie change by the Whitecaps. Allie Thunstrom tipped in a rebound and then Christina Putigna followed with her own goal. The game ended with a convincing win.
Overall, the Pride look like a mature team ready for the playoffs. They didn’t stop fighting when they were behind yesterday, and today the team showed off their depth with an emphatic win in which every line scored. They sit top of the table again and Pride players sit atop almost every category in the league except short-handed goals. It is going to be very interesting to see how this apparent dominant position stacks up against the second-ranked Toronto Six in next weekend’s games, especially as there is a very real chance these two teams could meet later in the Isobel Cup final.
The next game is away in Toronto and on ESPN against the Six Saturday March 11 at 2 pm.
Boston Women's Sports 
Leave a comment