Ottawa's Gabbie Hughes tries to put the puck past Minnesota goalie Nicole Hensley as teammate Emily Clark looks on during second period PWHL hockey action, Wednesday, January 17, 2024 in Ottawa. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Adrian Wyld

OTTAWA - It wasn’t so long ago that Susanna Tapani was scoring goals in ringette games, but Wednesday night she was right at home scoring twice, including the overtime game winner as Minnesota beat Ottawa 3-2 in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

Tapani scored 1:57 into overtime as her shot went in off Ottawa’s Jincy Roese’s stick leaving Ottawa’s Emerance Maschmeyer, who made 17 saves, with little chance to make the save.

Grace Zumwinkle also scored for Minnesota.

Tapani recently competed in SM Ringette, the top elite league in her native Finland, and has been a six-time Finnish national champion, four-time MVP, and four-time scoring leader of the league.

The 30-year-old made the decision to play in the new professional women’s league and through five games has two goals and three assists for Minnesota (4-0-1).

Minnesota trailed 2-0 after Ottawa’s Savannah Harmon and Lexie Adzija each scored first period goals for Ottawa (1-0-2).

“The start wasn’t the easiest for us,” admitted Tapani. “But we talked it through after the first periods and then we just knew that we were going to come back and score those goals. Two goals is nothing and, yeah, we just showed our team today, like, what we can do.”

Minnesota rallied in the second period.

They cut the lead in half with a power-play goal just three minutes into the period when Tapani beat Maschmeyer glove side.

Midway through the period with Minnesota shorthanded Zumwinkle was able to cut across the crease and scored off her backhand to make it 2-2.

Tapani had been in the penalty box and her teammates were more than happy to see her freed as a PWHL rule states that a penalty comes to an end if a shorthanded goal is scored.

“I think it’s pretty cool,” said Minnesota head coach Ken Klee. “I mean it’s a bit like dodgeball, the switcheroo. Like, you catch the dodgeball and you gain a player and they lose one. So, it’s definitely a momentum changer for the game which I’ve never seen. So, it’s kind of fun.”

Ottawa, who is still looking for its first regulation win, had a couple of great chances late in the third period.

With just over five minutes remaining in regulation Ottawa had two great chances. Adzija missed a wide-open net and Gabbie Hughes, a native of Minnesota, had a shot stopped on the goal line from a diving Hensley to the dismay of the 5,609 on hand at TD Place.

“I think we had a lot of bounces throughout the whole game and they just weren’t going in for us,” said Hughes. “On that particular shift I got a great pass from (Emily) Clark and hit the post and the goalie came out of the net and empty netter and the goalie made a great save with her stick, so props to (Nicole) Hensley for playing so good. Can’t really do much about it.”

Hensley was solid for Minnesota making 24 saves.

This marked the first of a three-game homestand and despite the loss coach Carla MacLeod liked a lot of what she saw and isn’t pushing any panic buttons.

“We’re just three games in,” said MacLeod. “We won’t use that excuse at the 21st game necessarily but right now we’re still young and we’re still learning and in every game we’ve had moments where we’re really confident and where we waver, but that’s so normal.”

MacLeod said at this point the team is focused on getting better each game.

Harmon opened the scoring for Ottawa at 3:41 of the first when she came down the left side and found space to go bar down short side.

Ottawa made it 2-0 when Adzija, on the doorstep, picked up Roese’s rebound for her first of the season.

NOTES

Seven countries are represented between the two team’s rosters: Canada, United States, Finland, Czechia, Japan, Hungary and Germany. Three of PWHL Minnesota’s players hail from Ontario, Thunder Bay’s Michela Cava, Burlington’s Emma Greco, and Kingston’s Amanda Leveille.

UP NEXT

Ottawa hosts the Toronto Tuesday, Jan. 23

Minnesota travels to Montreal on Wednesday, Jan. 24.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 17, 2024.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2024