NHL
“I think a championship here in the city of Boston is instrumental to being a part of that storied Boston legacy.”
LOWELL — It’s been 189 days since Hilary Knight and the rest of her teammates took in cheers from a raucous Tsongas Center crowd.
Boston’s PWHL squad has undergone some change since then.
After leaving the frozen sheet on May 29 as “PWHL Boston”, they returned for their home opener on Wednesday with a new identity — and sweaters, to boot.
But the more things change, the more they seem to remain the same for the Boston Fleet.
Boston’s crisp new threads might signal a clean slate after a successful (and frantic) first campaign for a unified women’s pro hockey league.
But a Fleet roster featuring many of the same players from last year’s run to the Walter Cup championship found itself in a similar spot on Wednesday: leaving the Tsongas ice on the wrong side of the scoresheet to the Minnesota Frost.
Despite another stout performance in net from goalie Aerin Frankel (26 saves), Boston was unable to exact some revenge after last year’s crushing result — with the Frost spoiling the Fleet’s home opener in Lowell, 2-1.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Knight and the rest of the Fleet, who — much like in last year’s deciding Game 5 result — struggled to find twine in their own barn.
“We’ve got great fans, and we really want to win in front of our fans and we came up really short tonight,” Knight noted.
Knight was the lone Fleet skater who managed to solve Frost netminder Maddie Rooney, with Boston’s scoring woes from last year (a league-worst 50 goals over 24 games) carrying over to the Fleet’s 0-2 start in 2024-25.
While Knight has lit the lamp in both of Boston’s games so far, she’s been the team’s only goal scorer (two in two games) on the year.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re not winning games, right? So I think it’s important that we find the net more, obviously,” Knight said of her strong start. “Playing a 60-minute game is more advantageous for us. … looking forward to our next opportunity to play 60 minutes.”
To further compound Boston’s woes, the Fleet lost Alina Muller — the team’s leading scorer last season — in the closing minutes of the second period after taking a hit to the head from Minnesota’s Maggie Flaherty.
Muller did not return to the game, with Fleet head coach Courtney Kessel noting postgame that the skilled forward is still being “evaluated”.
Flaherty was initially assessed a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct for the hit on Muller. But after a lengthy review, officials downgraded it to a two-minute minor penalty.
“They said that it was Muller’s own stick that hit her in the head,” Kessel said of the ruling.
Boston’s struggles in the offensive zone once hindered another stout showing from Frankel, who currently leads the PWHL with a stellar .941 save percentage.
“Just taking it one shot at a time, that’s normally my mentality,” Frankel noted. “It’s a long season, and each night we’re facing really good competition. So try to not get too ahead of myself, and just take it one shot at a time, one period at a time, and one game at a time.”
After a scoreless opening 20 minutes, the Frost got on the board at 7:25 in the second when Michela Cava’s shot bounced over Frankel and into the back of the net.
Knight secured the equalizer four minutes into the third — tipping a shot from Emily Brown past Rooney to knot the game up at 1-1.
But Minnesota answered four minutes later to take the lead for good, with Dominique Petrie redirecting a puck past Frankel to make it a 2-1 contest.
Despite pulling Frankel with a little over two minutes to go in regulation, Boston could net generate any sustained offensive pressure — with Frankel skating back to her net to turn aside a shot just seconds after initially leaving the crease for an extra skater.
Wednesday’s result did stunt some of the momentum that Knight and her teammates were looking to carry into Boston’s home opener.
But amid the frustrations rooted in another rough result to Minnesota, Knight believes that the Fleet and the PWHL as a whole are ready to build off of last year’s promise.
“I think a name is a great start,” Knight said of what she’s looking forward to in the PWHL’s second season. “I think the jersey, the colorways, just building on an electric start from the first year. And, yeah, I think a championship here in the city of Boston is instrumental to being a part of that storied Boston legacy.”
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