Ottawa Charge Recap: Week 5

A week after winning both their games, Ottawa had another fairly strong week, taking 4 out of a possible 6 points. Crucially, they were against teams near them in the standings. Concerningly, that means they were against the weaker teams in the league. Still, the Charge are now tied for third in the league, with a game in hand on fifth-place Boston who are two points behind. Still, with every team having 20 or 21 games left, there's still lots of time for anything to happen.

Ottawa Charge 3, New York Sirens 2 (January 7)

In some ways, this game felt like a drubbing by Ottawa. They poured on the shots, 37-23. Maybe most impressively, they held New York to just 5 shots in the third period when they were chasing the tying goal.

The Sirens got on the board first, but the Charge responded 79 seconds later with a beauty goal. Victoria Bach, newly acquired from Toronto, got her first point as a Charge, using her speed to race in and set up Danielle Serdachny for a tap-in goal.

Ottawa wasn't done that period, with Shiann Darkangelo scoring an opportunistic goal that's marked as unassisted but really was assisted by the referee, with a perfect kick pass into the slot.

I'm not claiming ref bias, I'm just saying I'd be really pissed if that goal was scored against me.

The second period saw Ottawa take a two-goal off what can only be described as a power move by Emily Clark, who bulldozed her way to the goal and didn't even really get a shot off, but it went in anyway.

That goal gave Zoe Boyd what I was surprised to see was her first point of the season, but then I remembered she's coming back from a broken wrist, and this was just her fourth game of the season (and first game with over 10 minutes of ice time). The problem was the Charge started to get into penalty trouble, taking three penalties in the second period and another early in the first—meanwhile, the Sirens didn't take any all game. But Ottawa's PK went 4/4.

New York got one back in the third, off the stick of Maja Nylen Persson, but they never really threatened to tie it up and Emerance Maschemeyer just had to be good but not amazing. The Sens got a huge regulation win against a team they are neck-and-neck with in the standings. As is so often true, Brianne Jenner was the engine of this team in the game, to the tune of 8 shots on goal, but also just willing the team forward shift after shift. She continues to have the most time on ice of any forward, while also playing the role of team mom.

Ottawa Charge 1, Boston Fleet 2 (OT) (January 11)

Ottawa's other game of the week ended in a disappointing OT loss, but it was a hard-fought battle on both sides. The teams seemed to really dig in and try to grind out a win. The teams finished tied in shots with 21. Emerance Maschmeyer got a rare night off, as Gwyneth Philips had her second career start.

It looked like Jocelyne Larocque had her first goal as a member of the Charge, but it turned out to be her first assist instead since it deflected off Victoria Bach, who got her first goal with Ottawa. It was a full former-Sceptre connection.

That was also Ashton Bell's first assist (and second point) of the year. She's not an offensive force, but with 7 points in 24 games last year, I was expecting a little more than 2 points in 9 games from her so far this year.

Sidney Morin got Boston on the scoreboard with an answer later in the first. Hannah Bilka looked to have given the Fleet the lead in the second, but video review determined that the puck had been kicked in and it was waved off. Similar to last game, Ottawa got into penalty trouble, taking the final four penalties of the game, including two in the tied third period, but thankfully the PK was up to the task again and didn't allow a goal. Still, it's not a great look to give up 9 powerplays and only receive 1 over two games this week. They'll need to clean that up.

The game went to OT, where Sidney Morin played hero, scoring her second of the game and the season to cap off the win. It was a frustrating end, but this game really could have gone either way. The Charge played strong enough defence to win, but they didn't pose enough of an offensive threat to say that they deserved it. It was nice to see Philips look poised, especially after giving up 4 goals (albeit on 39 shots) in her PWHL debut. My only other comment is that defender Jessica Adolfsson, newly signed to a 10-day contract, played 45 seconds (1 shift) in this game, registering a single hit. I didn't have big hopes for her, but I'm also not sure why you signed someone if you're not even going to give them a minute of ice time.

The Week Ahead

Ottawa host the Toronto Sceptres on Tuesday, January 14 at 7 pm, then head to Montreal to take on the Victoire on Sunday, January 19 in a 1 pm matinée. For the Tuesday game, the Sens game is at 7:30, so there will be some opportunity to watch the other game during intermissions. Unfortunately, both Sunday games (Charge–Victoire, Sens–Devils) start at 1 pm in some very poor scheduling. I understand that sometimes games at standard times line up, but a Sunday 1 pm game seems like it would've been very easy to not put both at the same times. As for what to expect, Toronto is bottom of the league and coming off a pair of losses last week, and Montreal is second in the league and coming off a week with a win (vs. Toronto) and a loss (vs. league-leading Minnesota). I'd be happy with .500 hockey this week, while cautiously hoping for more.