Six muscle past Beauts, extend winning streak

The Beauts traveled to Toronto for their first series of games since December 19, thanks to a combination of a long holiday break and a postponed series that put the Beauts on the sidelines for nearly a month. Despite a stronger offensive performance in their second contest, Toronto kept their six-game winning streak alive with 6-1 and 8-3 wins against Buffalo.

The Beauts struggled in their opening game against Toronto, allowing five unanswered goals to start. The Six jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the opening frame, with Leah Marino, Mikyla Grant-Mentis and Amy Curlew all scoring for the home team.

The Beauts pulled goaltender Carly Jackson after the first three goals, but the offense kept firing for the Six. Maegan Beres appeared to score Toronto’s fourth goal of the game, and Taylor Day picked up the fifth goal for the Six.

Down but not out, Cassidy MacPherson put Buffalo on the board with just over 12 minutes remaining in the third period, and the Beauts had a couple more good chances shortly after, one ringing off the crossbar. But Marino scored her second goal of the afternoon five minutes later, and the Beauts weren’t able to solve Elaine Chuli again, falling 6-1.

After scoring just one goal the day before, the Beauts came out firing on all cylinders on Sunday. Kennedy Ganser gave the Beauts their first lead of the weekend, finishing off a wild tic-tac-toe play from assists by Jenna Suokko and Grace Kleinbach.

From there, the game broke wide open: the Six’s Emma Woods tied the game up on a power play less than two minute later, and then took the lead on another power play just 17 seconds later on a tip-in by Shiann Darkangelo. Not to be outdone, the Beauts scored two quick goals just a few minutes later; Autumn MacDougall scored her second goal of the year when she threw a puck to the front of the net that deflected off a Toronto skater, and then Anjelica Diffendal sniped the puck past Tera Hofmann to take a 3-2 lead going into the first intermission.

The game was far from over - the Six scored twice early in the second period to re-take the lead - Woods got her second goal of the game 32 seconds into the middle frame to tie it, and then Brooke Boquist tucked home a pass from Darkangelo to put Toronto ahead. From there, it was all Toronto for the rest of the game - though the Beauts definitely had their chances, including a puck on the power play that was tipped just wide of the net that would have tied the game again - they just couldn’t beat either Chuli or Hofmann, who split time in net for Toronto. Grant-Mentis picked up a hat trick for Toronto, and Darkangelo scored her second goal of the game to put the win firmly in the Six’s hands.

The Beauts will return home and host the Minnesota Whitecaps next weekend. They’ll open the weekend on Saturday, January 22 at 7 p.m. before playing a Sunday matinee at 1 p.m. the following day.