The Toronto Sceptres are back in the win column after a prolonged absence and a veil of uncertainty has been lifted.
A team that has been playing well enough to win for the better part of three weeks but wasn’t getting the results finally got a victory earlier this week against an opponent they have not had a lot of luck against.
The Ottawa Charge have had the Sceptres’ number dating back to last season, but on Tuesday it was Toronto pushing the pace and dictating the flow in a game they would go on to win 4-2.
Toronto remains in last place in the six-team PWHL, but the gap shrank considerably from first to last with that three-point win.
The team has felt this turnaround was just a matter of time, a combination of their own confidence and a positive leadership group.
“I think a game like that, to be honest it wasn’t even about the result, but the effort the whole game,” newcomer Hayley Scamurra said following practice Friday. “It was a consistent game, the most consistent game I have been a part of (with my new team) with our energy and our pressure. We didn’t let up the whole 60 minutes and I think that showed. Luckily we were rewarded with the result.”
Goaltender Kristen Campbell took it one step further, calling it the “most complete game I’ve seen us play.”
FINDING HER RHYTHM
Campbell was out of the net for three consecutive games after what she admitted she wasn’t near her best. However, two solid outings and she seems to be back on track.
“Personally, I feel I’m trending upwards and feeling really good about my headspace that I’m in and the progressions I’m making in practice,” Campbell said Friday. “Just focussing on what I can control and I feel really comfortable right now where my game is at and I know I’m just going to keep building.”
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It’s not the first time Campbell has had to rally from an early struggle.
“Honestly, I have been through so much adversity in my career and I’m always able to take the positives and come out so much stronger,” Campbell said. “I think last year it was the same story. A lot of people were doubting me and saying things, but I never listen to the outside noise. I’m so focused on what I need to do as an individual and I know those tough times are what allows me to have those highs, so it’s just sticking to my process, keeping it simple and just showing up every day like I have my entire life. That’s who I am and how I always show up.”
ON THE COMEBACK TRAIL
Invariably, Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan winds up doing his post-practice availability with the media as his two injured reserves, Natalie Spooner and rookie defender Megan Carter, go through their own daily workouts on the ice behind him.
Friday was no exception with both players going through drills under the watchful eye of assistant coach Rachel Flanagan.
Ryan had become very adept at predicting the moment when a member of the media is about to ask for a timeline for the return of those players and he pre-empts the question by repeating he and the team have no timeline.
That said, he did reveal Friday that Carter, who is out with an unspecified lower body injury, is expected to return before Spooner, who tore her ACL last May.
“It’s constantly being assessed,” Ryan said of return dates. “So, it’s how do they feel after (an on-ice workout)? What do the test results show. There is really no definite answers yet. Even if I were talking to just my coaches, I would not be able to tell them exactly. I think Carter will back before Spooner so hopefully we get Carter back relatively soon. And there’s still no rush on Spooner. She needs the time to get ready to play.”
Ryan is pleased that one of his worst fears regarding the injuries has not played out.
“One of my fears this year a little bit has been if we continued to lose and the trend was going in the wrong direction, the last thing you want is for those two to feel that they have to come back and be more than what they are,” he said. “It’s also the last thing you want your players on your team to feel — that there are two saviours coming in to fix things.
“That’s not the case,” he said. “We have treated it and we have talked a lot about this: they are as good a trade acquisition as you could get midway through the year and that’s how we’re treating it. We can survive and play well with them or play well without them, but if we are playing well without them and we can add them to the lineup then, that’s the best case scenario.”