The return of Natalie Spooner was the headline, and while the league’s reigning MVP didn’t find the net in her first game in 274 days, her fingerprints and impact were all over the Toronto Sceptres’ 3-2 overtime win over the visiting Minnesota Frost on Tuesday.
Renata Fast ended the game with 3.7 seconds left in the three-on-three extra session, beating Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney on a deke after an end-to-end breakaway.
Spooner, fresh off a lengthy rehab following a torn anterior cruciate ligament, played 21 minutes and nine seconds. She hit the scoresheet with the secondary assist on Toronto’s first goal of the night, scored by Hannah Miller on a power play.
Spooner was also net front (where else, really?) for the Sceptres’ second goal as Daryl Watts banged home her own rebound with Spooner causing havoc in and around Rooney’s crease.
Spooner’s return coincided with the departure from the lineup of another key Sceptre in Sarah Nurse, who suffered a lower body injury during a Rivalry Series game during the International break.
Nurse is on the long-term injured list, but is expected back this season.
Spooner’s return was timely in that regard. The leading goal-scorer and point-getter in the first season of the PWHL just makes those around her better and that was evident as linemates Miller and Watts elevated their games with two-point nights each playing alongside Spooner.
Sophie Jaques and Brooke McQuigge scored to give Minnesota a 2-0 lead, but Sceptres backup goaltender Raygan Kirk was solid the rest of the way, stopping 27 of 29 shots overall.