Natalie Spooner’s 2-goal effort propels PWHL Toronto to first home win

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In a season where goals have been hard to come by, PWHL Toronto has relied heavily on one player — and she came through again Friday night in a big way.

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Natalie Spooner, a veteran on Canada’s national women’s team, has been the only near constant in the goal-scoring department for Toronto coach Troy Ryan and she was there again when needed most Friday, scoring the only two goals in a 2-0 shutout of New York at the Mattamy Centre.

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It was Spooner’s fourth and fifth goals of the season in seven games for Toronto. As a team, they have scored just 15. Hannah Miller, who had two in the same game, is the only other  Toronto player to have more than one so far this year.

With the win, Toronto’s first at home in four attempts, the team improves to 3-5 on the season.

Spooner is one of the few Toronto forwards who goes to the net hard and this has served her well all season.

On her game-winning marker, Spooner got the job done on a virtual solo rush, taking the puck into the New York zone wide around Emma Woods, holding her off with one hand and then tucking the puck under Corinne Schroder for the first goal Toronto has scored on the New York netminder this year. She shut out Toronto in the league’s lift-off game on New Year’s Day at the Mattamy Centre.

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With Toronto just wrapping up a power play in the third period it was Spooner again, just off the far post this time, jamming home a Jocelyn Larocque feed.

A sellout crowd of 2,506 was on hand for this defensive gem by Toronto, which held New York to just 17 shots in the game.

Kristen Campbell earned her first PWHL shutout, turning aside all 17 shots. She was at her best with New York on the power play in the second period, but for the most part the visitors were kept to the outside and never really put a lot of pressure on the Toronto net.

It’s the second win in two starts for Campbell, who won in Montreal last Saturday in a shootout.

Friday night’s game was the last one in January for Toronto, meaning the next time the team takes the ice — next Saturday at home against Minnesota — Toronto will add the offensive skills of Victoria Bach, its seventh-round pick and a player who was finishing her teacher’s  degree in college and waas ineligible to play with the team until Feb. 1.

Bach will be a huge add, particularly to Toronto’s anemic power play, which has scored just once in 22 opportunities so far this season, including 0-for-3 on Friday.

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