TORONTO — Natalie Spooner had to wait awhile but the goals are finally coming.
The reigning MVP and scoring champion of the Professional Women's Hockey League netted her first two goals of the season as the Toronto Sceptres earned a 4-1 win over the Montreal Victoire on Thursday. It was Spooner's sixth game back on the ice after she had off-season surgery on her left anterior cruciate ligament, to repair an injury suffered in last season's playoffs in May.
The 34-year-old said she's leaning on her experience of returning from giving birth in December 2022 to avoid frustration while working back into peak condition.
"I think I played in six games in the (now-defunct) PWHPA (Professional Women's Hockey Players Association) then I played at the world championships," she said. "In those first six games, … I think I scored one goal, maybe.
"It's really just continuing to push and then even after that, I think probably to where you saw me last season, it was probably 20 games in. (...) It's different but it's kind of similar in the sense of getting your timing and everything back."
Asked if she was feeling 100 per cent back, Spooner said there's still room for improvement.
"Definitely back into the swing of the games and everything," she said. "I think it's still going to take some more games to just really feel like I'm there with the timing and everything and my habits.
"But I think just every game, just trying to build and make sure I'm learning from every game I'm playing since it's pretty quick to jump into it in the middle of the season and keep up."
Spooner opened the scoring against the Victoire 5:48 into the first period.
Nine seconds after Montreal's Mikyla Grant-Mentis was sent to the penalty box for boarding, Julia Gosling sent a cross-ice pass in front to Spooner who missed at first but tapped in an airborne puck.
"It felt good," said Spooner. "I'm just trying to do the right things, get to the net-front where I'm good. We kind of thought of a play beforehand and it ended up working out.
"It hit the post at first and I was like, 'oh man, just my luck,' and then I was able to get the rebound luckily."
Spooner added her second of the game with 3:56 left in the second period, but it came following a chance of hers that led to that point.
She picked off a clearing attempt by goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, who was far from her net, and drove in hoping to score with just a Montreal defender to beat in front of the goal.
But Desbiens tripped her, leading to Catherine Dubois being sent to the penalty box. Just over a minute after Dubois was penalized, Marie-Philip Poulin was also sent to the box for delay of game.
Just 15 seconds later, Spooner was credited with tipping in a Renata Fast point shot to make it a 4-0 game.
The win was Toronto's eighth in its last 11 games, having had its six-game winning streak snapped in its last outing on Feb. 25, a 3-1 loss to Montreal. It was the first win of the season for the Sceptres over the Victoire in five head-to-head matchups this season after going undefeated in five games versus Montreal last season.
It also helped the Sceptres climb back into second place in the PWHL standings, moving one point ahead of Boston and six behind Montreal.
"I like the way we did it, I thought everybody contributed in some way, shape, or form," said Toronto head coach Troy Ryan. "Just a hard, kind of playoff atmosphere.
"I like the physicality and obviously nice to have a couple find the back of the net."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 6, 2025.
Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
