New York Riveters Notch Their First Win of Season against Knight and the Boston Pride

It is incredible to be witnessing history first hand.  This is accentuated by the fact that I am a female, in the sport industry, with the majority of my focus (written and radio broadcasts) on ice hockey, it seems surreal.

There’s been a short hiatus of NWHL action thanks to the Four Nations Cups, an annual tournament taking place since 1996 (previously the Three Nations Cup).

The United States claimed their 6th victory in this tournament with an OT win vs Team Canada. Hillary Knight of the Boston Pride scored the game winning goal within 36 seconds of the extra frame. Knight and the Pride brought their undefeated crew into the Aviator Sports Complex in Brooklyn to take on the winless New York Riveters Sunday night.

With Veteran’s Day just passing last week, the Riveters and the NWHL hosted the league’s first Military Appreciation Night by teaming up with Defending The Blue Line. This organization is here for one reason: “keeping hockey alive for the children of our Nations Heroes”. For more information about their program, please visit their site (www.defendingtheblueline.org). Riveters donned camouflage jerseys in swap of their usual red, white, and blue All-American sweater.

The last time these two teams met on October 18, the Pride prevailed winning 7-1. Their offense is impressive with league wide points and goals leader Brianna Decker always ready for the next rush up ice into the opponents zone. Net minders Brittany Ott and Lauren Slebodnick of the Pride lead the league in wins (2) and save percentage (0.964) receptively.

Tonight was a different story. The Riveters defeated the Pride 3-2, handing them their first loss of the season.

At 3:51 of the first period, Knight drove one past Nana Fujimoto for the Pride, pushing Boston to an early 1-0 lead. For the home team this was an all too familiar feeling; in each contest this season the Riveters have yet to strike first. However, the girls didn’t let this early deficit mentally control their play.

The Rivs answered right away, scoring back to back goals by Madison Packer and Beth Hanrahan. Now with the lead, Fujimoto knew she needed to stay on her A-game, and that she did. If you look at the @NYRiveters Twitter feed, there are multiple “pictures” of Fujimoto during the game. These “pictures” were just images of plain brick wall. Nothing could get past her, she put on quite the show.

Once in full swing action of the third period, the Rivs increased their lead with a 5 on 3 power play goal! It remained 3-1 until the Pride went on a PP with 2:02 remaining. They pulled goalie Lauren Slebodnick for an extra attacker. The Pride capitalized with this opportunity as they notched one more goal, but not enough for the win.

The first star of the game went to the lady between the pipes, Fujimoto. It seems to be the consensus that she achieved brick wall status tonight, stopping 40 of 42 shots on goal.

The Riveters finally tallied a one in the W column. With this league only having four founding teams, they meet against one another a number of times. Each time it’s a different contest and last night’s game proved that.

They Rivs are back in action next weekend taking on the Pride again, this time up in Boston at Harvard Bright-Landry Center. Looking forward on the schedule, their next home contest is 11/29 at 7PM vs the Buffalo Beauts.

As always, tickets can be purchased by visiting https://nwhl.co/buy-tickets/. These games are action packed. History is happening in front of our eyes, don’t miss out!