Takeaways: Kirk Proves She Belongs, PK Stands Strong, But Toronto Drops Fourth Straight

The Toronto Sceptres dropped their fourth straight game in a 4-3 overtime thriller to the Montreal Victoire.

Here are three thoughts from the close loss.

Toronto finding success in the dirty areas

The Toronto Sceptres were able to find success against Montreal in the dirty areas Saturday afternoon.

It started late in the first period, as just 42 seconds after Jesse Compher put Toronto on the board, Sarah Nurse crashed the net finding a rebound and sliding it past Elaine Chuli.

That net presence would reword the Sceptres once again late in the second period. After a sustained period of time in Montreal’s zone, Izzy Daniel would find a loose puck in the crease and score her second of the season, regaining the lead for Toronto.

The Sceptres have been most successful when they have been able to control the puck in their opponent's end of the ice. All three of their goals were a result of 14 of their 20 shots coming from the slot area.

Finding these goals in the dirty area is what gave this team success in the second half of the season last year. They will continue this play if they want to get back on track ahead of the New Year.

Penalty kill stands strong

The Sceptres penalty kill found its stride for the first time this season, and was a key to their success against the Victoire.

“Our penalty kill has struggled, and our penalty kill responded tonight," said Toronto head coach Troy Ryan. “The amount of blocked shots that people were willing to get in front of helped us stop some pretty dangerous players.”

This came to the forefront in the third period after Rylind MacKinnon was assessed a major penalty. Toronto was given the daunting task of killing off a five minute power play, which they did with flying colours.

Toronto took a total of four penalties in the game and with some help from the post were able to kill off all four. This was the first time this season that Toronto did not allow a power play goal, improving their percentage to 66.7%.

“We have some of the most confident penalty killers in the world in (Jocelyn) Larocque and (Renata) Fast, you also got (Emma) Maltais and (Blayre) Turnbull,” said Ryan. “These players have killed penalties in the most high pressure situations you can in the game, So we're confident in that area, it's just trying to bring our team to that same mentality.”

Kirk proves she belongs

Raygan Kirk had the tall task in tonight’s game as she made her first career start against the likes of Marie-Philip Poulin and the Victoire.

She passed with flying colors despite the tough overtime loss.

“I think she showed some really good signs for someone that would be nervous going into her first game, being willing to get out of her crease to stop pucks and make some plays and even just showing an aggressive assertiveness, " said Ryan. “Hats off to her for just stepping in with some confidence and giving us the confidence to be able to make it a close one.”

Despite letting in four goals, Kirk did not look out of place as Toronto’s starting goalie.

The type of play you could expect from her was shown just seven minutes into the first period. She made three straight point blank saves before covering the puck.

The athleticism and focus shown in that sequence is just a glimpse of the goalie Kirk is. She could very well be a future starter in this league, if not now.

In total Kirk made 35 saves on 39 six shots in a game where it would be hard to point the finger at her for any of the four goals.

She deserves to get the next start when Toronto plays Boston on December 27.