Everything seemed to be pointing in the right direction for the Toronto Sceptres. Then along came Aerin Frankel and they appear to be right back where they had been.
The Boston Fleet goaltender stopped 35 of 36 Toronto shots, many of them the high-calibre variety, in pushing the Sceptres further down the league standings.
After a 4-1 loss before 3,951 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell — not a bad crowd for that venue — Toronto is now five points back of the fourth and final playoff spot that currently belongs to New York, which is in Toronto this weekend for the Battle of Bay Street at Scotiabank Arena.
New York also owns a game in hand on Toronto.
Here are our takeaways from Wednesday’s loss.
THAT START … AGAIN
Another low energy start to a game and another hill they couldn’t quite overcome.
It’s got to be maddening watching the same recipe for disaster play out time and again if you are a member of the Toronto Sceptres.
The issue Wednesday night wasn’t just the low energy in that first period but an inability to get out of their own end cleanly when the opportunity is there.
On both of Boston’s first-period goals, the Sceptres were hemmed in but just before the Fleet finally got the puck past Sceptres’ goalkeeper Kristen Campbell, Toronto skaters had a chance to clear the zone.
Both times the clearing attempt was thwarted by a Boston attacking forward and both times the puck wound up in Toronto’s net.
The Sceptres spent the rest of the night chasing.
NOT QUITE GETTING HER DUE
On the list of Toronto forwards who were robbed by Frankel, Jesse Compher is right up there having missed on both a back-door pass that Frankel slid across to deny and a point-blank opportunity.
But Compher is and has been making things happen all season for a Sceptres team which has been short of scoring.
Her three goals and three assists have her tied for fourth on the team in scoring but it’s her hard style of play and willingness to take punishment in and around the net that has made her such a consistent contributor to the opportunities being generated by the Sceptres this year.
Compher picked up a secondary assist on Toronto’s only goal in this game but far more impressive was how many scoring opportunities she helped generate.
In year one in the league, Compher was a solid player but one whose game was up and down. She was capable of scoring the big goal but it rarely felt like the chances were there for her on any kind of consistent basis.
That has changed in Year 2 as Compher is consistently finding a way to impact the offence regardless of the competition.
She seems to have found a permanent home on that line centred by Turnbull and with Hayley Scamurra on the other wing.
A GOOD SIGN
Julia Gosling is still learning the PWHL. The Sceptres first-round pick, sixth overall, at last June’s draft has the size and the shot to become a real problem for opposing goalies and defenders.
On Wednesday in Lowell, Gosling had her busiest night of the season, finally getting herself enough space to use that shot – she took five in the game – while serving notice that she can be a threat in any game. Frankel stopped her on a breakaway and got a piece of Gosling’s rebound attempt to steer that out of harm’s way but that seemed par for the night for the Sceptres.
Playing on a line with Emma Maltais and Emma Woods, Gosling had her most impactful game of the season on Wednesday which bodes well for the rest of her season.
THE QUALITY IS THERE IF THE QUANTITY ISN’T
The Sceptres may be one of the league’s lowest scoring teams, but they seem to have an inordinate number of highlight reel goals despite that.
Turnbull’s third period marker as she smartly redirected a Kali Flanagan pass over Frankel’s shoulder from her backhand was special.
The same could be said of Hannah Miller’s goal in the most recent win in Ottawa. The magic on that one was how the pass from Sarah Nurse seemed to bunt a high pass that came in about waist high directly back to Miller, who banged home the goal. The hand-eye coordination in that one was next level.
There was also that Daryl Watts goal earlier this year in a loss to the Frost. In a very tight space, Watts picked off a clearing pass and then deked her way around Maddie Rooney for Watts’ highlight contribution to the year.
You can probably add Compher’s goal from her knees against Montreal earlier this year to that group as well. Marie-Philip Poulin might have gone her one better with her goal of a similar nature in the game in Vancouver, but Compher’s was a bullet too.
All that’s missing from Toronto right now is the quantity, though the eventual return of Natalie Spooner just might address that very soon.