PWHL Toronto can have one other probability to maneuver on to the Walter Cup last on Wednesday evening, however the group must win with out arguably its greatest participant.
Natalie Spooner will miss the remainder of the season with a knee damage suffered in Sport 3 towards Minnesota, the group introduced on Wednesday morning.
Spooner took a success from Minnesota ahead Grace Zumwinkle in entrance of her group’s bench in the course of the third interval of Toronto’s 2-0 loss on Monday. She remained down on the ice for a number of seconds earlier than crawling to the bench and needing assist to get down the tunnel. There was no penalty on the play.
WATCH | Spooner suffers season-ending damage in Sport 3 towards Minnesota:
PWHL Toronto’s Natalie Spooner left the sport with a lower-body damage within the third interval of sport three towards Minnesota Monday evening.
Spooner’s damage is an enormous loss for Toronto. The 33-year-old from Scarborough, Ont. was the league’s main scorer within the common season, registering 27 factors and 20 targets in 24 video games — 9 targets greater than teammate Sarah Nurse and Zumwinkle, who tied for second within the goal-scoring race. Spooner additionally performed a key position on Toronto’s penalty kill.
In three playoff video games, Spooner had a aim and an help.
“It is a large loss for us, clearly Natalie has been an vital a part of our success all 12 months,” Toronto GM Gina Kingsbury stated in a press release. “We now have little question Natalie will proceed to have an effect on our group, simply otherwise.”
Toronto activated ahead Jess Jones from the reserve record to fill in for Spooner. Jones did not log a degree over 5 video games with Toronto within the common season.
Toronto leads the best-of-five sequence 2-1 with Sport 4 set for Wednesday (8 p.m. ET) in Minnesota.
The winner of the sequence will face Boston the best-of-five Walter Cup championship.
