The Toronto Furies kicked off their season in fine fashion this weekend, walking away with two wins against the Boston Blades.

Saturday, October 15: 2-1 Furies (OT)

Game Summary | Full Game

The Furies held their home opener in conjunction with the Etobicoke Dolphins’ Pink the Rink tournament in support of breast cancer charities.  Dolphins of various levels skated out with the teams during the introductions. Dolphins’ representative Colleen Muise and CWHL Commissioner Brenda Andress dropped the ceremonial puck.  Players used pink tape on sticks and socks, and a pink “chuck a puck” was held during the second intermission.

This game started out in familar fashion as Natalie Spooner got the puck, dodged around everyone and took a shot on net. Blades goalie Lauren Dahm, stepping into the enormous skates of Geneviève Lacasse, would stop that shot and everything else for the first 49:29 of the game.

Spooner finally got tired of playing with everyone else and took the puck up the boards from the Furies' blue line to make a beautiful shot over Dahm's glove. One difference between this and similar plays from last year was that instead of being the only Fury in the offensive zone she was shadowed by two Furies, including rookie Jenna Dingledein, the whole way in case she wanted to pass or a rebound came open.

Barely two minutes later Erin Kickham scored out of a mess around the net and from that moment on I think we all knew we were headed for a dramatic ending.  In the last minute of play, we nearly got one, as the Furies tapped the puck in with 57 seconds left. Unfortunately, the whistle had already blown, so the goal was called off. To OT we went, with nightmare visions of a shootout dancing in our heads.

Fortunately, that was not the case. Not only did the Blades give Spooner far too much time and space to move, the players were so focused on her that they didn't notice Carolyne Prevost coming in behind the play ready to tap the rebound in.

While there wasn't a lot of scoring, there were a lot of improvements over the Furies of last season. The team I watched was faster both on their skates and in their thinking, retrieving pucks and jumping on the Blades' defensive mistakes. They dominated the game, outshooting their opponents by a total of 56 to 16 and spending most of their time in Boston's zone. Even on the penalty kill, more than half the playing time was spent in the offensive zone.

Starting goalie Christina Kessler got so bored halfway through the second that she started coming well out of her net to play the puck on the rare occasions it made it past the Furies' blue line. Only one play, a poke check on Sadie St Germain, actually gave her any trouble, but she came away unscathed.

One item of note - there seemed to be an awful lot of players who got "tangled up" with someone else's stick. It never appeared to be a stick caught in equipment and yet there were several instances of players on either side tugging sticks away from an opponent with no penalty called.

The first Furies power play of the game came a little over halfway into the second period, as Kristina Brown was called for high sticking. Brown audibly yelled "Fuck, yeah!" at a play on the ice and then immediately looked round and exclaimed "Oh my god there are little kids here!" Her face was priceless.

Three stars

3. Natalie Spooner (1G, 1 A)

2. Lauren Dahm (54 saves)

1. Carolyne Prevost (GWG)

Sunday, October 16: 6-1 Furies

Game Summary

Both teams seemed a little slow in the first five minutes, with the only action coming from a penalty to Shannon Moulson for cross-checking which was killed off without much trouble.

The first goal came a minute before the halfway mark -- a scramble in front of the net with blue jerseys seeming to vastly outnumber the white.  Prevost snagged the puck and lifted it in neatly over Dahm’s pads. The second was was a nifty shorthanded goal by Spooner while Fast was in the box for interference.

That was it for the first, apart from a worrying sequence near the end of the period. Sadie St Germain came out of the penalty box, gained possession and then got completely bowled over by Erin Ambrose in front of the net. She stayed down on her hands and knees for a couple of long moments before getting up. The medical staff went out but she was already making her way off under her own power, if looking a little shaky. Ambrose got called for tripping and spent most of the rest of the period in the box.

The second was a fairly quiet period. The ice was less tilted in the Furies’ favour than the day before - goalie Sonja van der Bliek was much less bored than Kessler had been -- but even needing to kill off two penalties, they still had the edge on shots. Kelly Terry came in with a nice shot to test Dahm late, but couldn’t beat her.

While I was surprised Dahm started instead of Blades backup Shelley Payne, and she didn’t look quite as impressive as she had on Saturday, to this point in the game she hadn't really needed to be.

The third period seemed like it was going to be more of the same - Lauren Dahm even managed to lose her stick early on without giving up a goal. Then Michela Cava happened. Cava initially had a chance turned away on the doorstep but the Furies cycled the puck and she came back for more, making it 3-0, and becoming the first rookie to score this season.

The fourth goal came on a power play that perhaps shouldn’t have been called. Certainly Ambrose’s stick hit the ice with such a slap I thought she might have gotten an embellishment penalty to go with Taylor McGee’s hooking call.  Nonetheless, Renata Fast scored her first goal as a Fury with a shot from the hashmarks off a nice feed by Spooner.  Kelly Terry made it 5-0 only twenty seconds later.

Unfortunately, van der Bliek’s shutout was spoiled by Kate Leary in a scramble around the net with just under 4 minutes to go. Spooner was so incensed that she scored 9 seconds later on a play right off the faceoff.

The game ended on a bit of a bad note. Boston’s Erin Kickham was called for cross checking Julie Allen with less than 2 minutes left. Allen, who was injured all last season, was moving gingerly when she left the ice. Allen had an assist on the first goal of the game and also showed off some nice moves around a Blade defender for an opportunity that had the crowd roaring. Hopefully she’ll be okay.

In total, nine different Furies, including three rookies, got points in this one. Despite the final score, the first two periods of this game were overall a better game for the Blades.  They limited the total shots against to almost half of what the Furies managed the day before, and zone time was distributed far more equally among the two teams. However, the Blades also allowed a lot of short breakaways, and Lauren Dahm allowed 4 goals on 9 shots in the third period.

The Blades had several players in temporary numbers for the weekend — jerseys with no name and an alternate number from the number the player had picked for the season. Hopefully the situation gets resolved faster than van der Bliek’s post-trade jersey issue last season.

Three stars

3. Jenelle Kohanchuk (2A)

2. Natalie Spooner (2G, 2A)

1. Michela Cava (GWG, 2A)

Furies of note

Natalie Spooner - hard to say things about Spooner that haven’t already been said, but she managed a six point weekend. Her moves are still spectacular.  Unlike last year, there were very few instances of Spooner carrying the play by herself. This had less to do with defensive coverage from the Blades than with trusting her linemates, Jenelle Kohanchuk and Michela Cava, who were more than able to keep up with her.

Michela Cava - a rookie in the fortunate position of centering the first line, where she managed a goal and two assists. Spooner clearly trusts her to carry the puck into the zone. Her passes weren’t always where they should have been but she showed off some nice moves throughout the weekend.

Renata Fast - the second overall pick in the 2016 draft was quick to prove her worth, assisting on both Furies goals in the first game before scoring her own in the second. She also showed off some great moves to keep opponents off the puck in her own zone.

Erin Ambrose - another rookie who shows up in my notes a lot, making shots or great passes to another player. She also got her first professional point in the first game, an assist on Spooner's goal.

Jess Vella - makes good use of the time she had on the ice, getting more than one opportunity in alone. In the second game she also fought off several Blades to get a chance on net, but lost the puck at the last second and ended up bowled into the net behind Lauren Dahm.

Vanessa Spataro - had a nice sequence keeping control of the puck and fighting through several Blades to the net in the second game but Lauren Dahm was right there to shut the door.

The Furies next series is next weekend, October 22 and 23 in Montreal against the Canadiennes. Saturday's game will be available live on YouTube and puck drop will be 5:30 p.m. 

Women's HockeyCanadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL)