Ottawa Charge take 2-1 series lead thanks to Savolainen's Game 3 heroics

canadian capital bill licking capital of massachusetts Fleet, taking 2-1 lead in playoff series

The gap between the Ottawa Charge and the Boston Fleet has proven to be razor thin with every win coming down to capitalizing on the smallest edge.

On Friday, the Charge earned a 2-1 win thanks to a practice put into play to take a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-five semifinal in the Professional Women's Hockey League. Ottawa can punch its ticket to the Walter Cup final with a victory Sunday afternoon.

Ronja Savolainen rifled a shot off the back boards that bounced in off Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel's skate with 29 seconds left in regulation to secure the win. Savolainen admitted goalie coach Pierre Groulx had the team practice shooting into the boards to see how the puck bounced.

Charge edge Fleet in Game 3 with Savolainen's late goal in front of record-breaking crowd

"I kind of knew that it's gonna bounce, but I didn't know it (would) bounce that way," said Savolainen.

Groulx spent five years as the goaltending coach of the NHL's Ottawa Senators and knows the boards at Canadian Tire Centre extremely well.

"Obviously, there's a familiarity here from when he was with the Sens, but I think more important than that is just how great of a coach he is," said Charge head coach Carla MacLeod. "He's really bolstered our offence and defense.

"He's really taken grasp of the net front presence at both ends of the rink, and gives incredible presentations to our players to just try to help us understand tendencies and what we want to do."

MacLeod admitted the goal was the clear result of just putting a puck towards the net, something she would like to see a lot more of from her players.

For the third straight game, the Charge were outshot by the Fleet, 37-22, and the workload has been significant on Gwyneth Philips.

"Good things happen when you shoot a hockey puck in our game," said MacLeod. So, we'll just keep leaning into that and keep having that mantra, and hopefully we'll get a few more that direction."

Players admitted they recognize the importance of taking a shooter's mentality.

"There are two tremendous goalies on both ends, and I think that we can do a better job of taking shots on net," said Ottawa forward Rebecca Leslie. "We passed a lot up in the slot, so I think that finding ways to get more shots on net is only going to help us."

With goals at a premium in this series, the Fleet were looking to gain any edge possible and were crashing the net and trying to make things as challenging as possible for Philips.

Savolainen came to her netminder's defence after one incident and took a roughing penalty for it, but MacLeod said she takes no issue with players wanting to protect Philips.

The Fleet will be looking to do much of the same come Sunday.

"They're getting their looks," said Fleet coach Kris Sparre. "There's no panic here, you know."

Boston forward Liz Schepers, who played for defending champion Minnesota last year and faced the Charge in that championship final, knows the Fleet just need to stay the course.

"I think my role is just to continue to reassure our girls that we're doing the right things," said Schepers. "Like, as (Kris) was saying, we can't do much else aside from putting a couple more pucks in the net here."

The win was a memorable one for Leslie, who celebrated her 30th birthday. During a TV timeout, the crowd of 13,112, which set a PWHL playoff record, sang happy birthday to her.

"I mean, obviously really special, best birthday gift I could have gotten today was that win," admitted Leslie. "So, just a really big team win, really happy with the end result."

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