{"id":543964,"date":"2026-03-18T06:27:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543964\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T06:27:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T06:27:09","slug":"kirk-posts-second-straight-shutout-as-toronto-beats-boston-pwhl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/543964\/","title":{"rendered":"KIRK POSTS SECOND-STRAIGHT SHUTOUT AS TORONTO BEATS BOSTON | PWHL"},"content":{"rendered":"

Highlights and Press Conferences available on\u00a0Boston<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Toronto<\/a>\u202f\u00a0YouTube channels\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

BOSTON, MA (March 17, 2026) \u2013\u00a0 Raygan Kirk shut the door for the second straight game, making 26 saves to backstop Toronto to a 2-0 victory over the Boston Fleet in a St. Patrick\u2019s Day battle in front of 6,095 fans at a sold out Agganis Arena on Tuesday night. The 25-year-old goaltender has posted back-to-back shutouts for the Sceptres \u2014 who have won two straight games by identical 2-0 scores \u2014 and has now made 58 consecutive saves. With the game trending towards overtime, Sceptres forward Daryl Watts finally broke through at 8:59 of the third period, slipping a puck between Aerin Frankel\u2019s pads to give Toronto a 1-0 lead. In what was a battle of the netminders, Frankel stopped 28 of 29 shots, including 14 in the third period. The first two frames were an even, scoreless affair, with each team registering 16 shots on goal, and both Kirk and Frankel stood tall for their teams. Midway through the second period, Kirk stopped a shorthanded breakaway \u2014 and the rebound \u2014 to keep the game scoreless. Then, with Toronto on the same power play, Frankel made three pad saves in quick succession amid traffic at the side of the crease. As the Fleet fought for the equalizer and the Sceptres pushed for a second goal, both Kirk and Frankel continued to thwart every opportunity thrown their way. It wasn\u2019t until Boston pulled the goaltender in an attempt to even the score that Toronto struck again, with captain Blayre Turnbull adding an empty-net insurance goal with 27 seconds remaining to secure the victory for the visitors. With the win, Toronto moves into sole possession of the fourth and final playoff spot in the PWHL, three points ahead of Ottawa, who have two games in hand. Boston, who played their first home game in 48 days, remains atop the PWHL standings with a three-point cushion over both Minnesota and Montr\u00e9al, who each have a game in hand. <\/p>\n

QUOTES\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sceptres Head Coach Troy Ryan on the game: \u201cI thought it was a good, hard-fought game. I mentioned in between periods that it had a kind of playoff attitude to it. Very physical and heated. We\u2019re just starting to trend in the right direction since the international break and Boston has been rolling along all year. We\u2019re just happy to come here on the road and find a way to get three points.\u201d
Toronto forward Daryl Watts on getting a puck past Aerin Frankel: \u201cShe\u2019s such an incredible goalie, it\u2019s so hard to beat her. I feel like you\u2019ve got to try and make her move a little bit. It\u2019s just coming across, tried to get her a little bit off-balance. She\u2019s a phenomenal goalie, so I\u2019ll take what I can against her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston Head coach Kris Sparre on the Fleet\u2019s first home loss of the season: \u201cI thought it was a good hockey game. I think we were more chaotic with the puck than we typically are and a little less organized in certain areas of our game. But, you know, this this kind of marks the end of a pretty long stretch for us. Our players have battled. They\u2019ve been in a lot of close games that have gone right down to the wire and into overtime. I’m proud of our compete, but unfortunately, we couldn’t get a win in front of this great crowd tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston forward Jessie Eldridge on landing in Boston in the morning and debuting with the Fleet tonight: \u201cIt\u2019s been a bit of a whirlwind for sure, but special. Obviously, not the result we wanted tonight, but can I tell this is a special group. I\u2019m really excited to work with them. I actually kind of enjoyed [the quick turnaround], I got to rip the bandaid right off and just go play hockey.\u201d<\/p>\n

NOTABLES\u00a0<\/p>\n

Toronto has a league-high 14 points in six games since the Olympics (4-0-2-0), continuing a season-high point streak for the team after losing three straight games in regulation before the break, and seven of eight overall.<\/p>\n

The Sceptres are the first team in the PWHL this season to post consecutive shutout victories and the second team in regular season history to achieve the feat. New York posted consecutive shutouts during the 2024-25 season in games before and after the World Championship break (Apr. 1 at Montr\u00e9al and Apr. 27 at Minnesota).<\/p>\n

Of Toronto\u2019s seven all-time shutout victories, including playoffs, tonight was the first on the road.<\/p>\n

Boston\u2019s streak of 12 consecutive games decided by a single goal or a shootout came to an end tonight, the longest such streak in PWHL history. Prior to tonight\u2019s result, the last time a Fleet game was decided by more than one goal was Dec. 21, a 3-1 win over Seattle.<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s loss was Boston\u2019s first of the season at one of their primary home venues after entering the game a perfect 6-for-6 between Agganis Arena and Tsongas Center. <\/p>\n

Prior to tonight, the Fleet were the only team without a shutout loss this season, last held scoreless on Apr. 2, 2025, when they fell 4-0 to Ottawa at the Tsongas Center.<\/p>\n

Toronto has earned 20 of their 31 points in games in which they have scored two or fewer goals. The only team with more points in such games is Boston with 24.<\/p>\n

Raygan Kirk posted her second straight shutout, following the first blank sheet of her career against Seattle on Sunday, and joins Corinne Schroeder (New York, 2024-25) as the only goaltenders in PWHL history to post shutouts in consecutive starts. The sophomore goaltender has now made 58 consecutive saves and, in her seventh straight start for Toronto, has earned points in six consecutive games, including four regulation wins. <\/p>\n

Aerin Frankel\u2019s career-high seven-game win streak came to an end tonight. It was her first loss since Jan. 11 in a shootout against Ottawa and her first regulation loss since Jan. 3 against Vancouver, snapping a streak of nine consecutive games in which she had earned at least one point in the standings.<\/p>\n

Daryl Watts extended her point streak to four games (2G, 3A), one away from the season-high five-game streak she put together from Dec. 21 to Jan. 3. The tally was her third game-winner of the season, setting a new career high in the category after recording two GWG in each of her first two seasons. She is the only PWHL player to lead her team in goals, assists and points, and now has eight goals on the season, tied for seventh in the PWHL, and her 16 points are also tied for seventh in the league.<\/p>\n

Blayre Turnbull extended her season-high point streak to four games (3G, 1A) with an empty-net goal. The Sceptres captain now has seven goals in 22 games this season, one shy of the eight she recorded across 54 regular-season games over the league\u2019s first two seasons. Her 12 points is a new career high, surpassing the 11 (5G, 6A) she recorded in 30 games during the 2024-25 campaign.<\/p>\n

Kali Flanagan notched her fifth assist of the season and now has seven points (2G, 5A) in 22 games in 2025\u201326, matching her career-high total set last season in 30 games. The Burlington, MA, native has points in four of her seven career games in Boston, representing four of her 20 career points.<\/p>\n

Toronto (0\/3) and Boston (0\/3) both went scoreless on the power play tonight and are now unsuccessful in their last 15 and 16 opportunities, respectively. Toronto\u2019s last power-play goal came from Flanagan on Jan. 20 against Seattle, extending their drought to eight games, while Boston\u2019s last was scored by Alina M\u00fcller on Feb. 28 against Ottawa, with the team now five games without a goal on the advantage.<\/p>\n

Shay Maloney set a career high with five shots on goal, leading all skaters in the contest in the category. The second-year forward\u2019s previous high was four, a mark she had reached five times before tonight.<\/p>\n

Jessie Eldridge made her Fleet debut after being acquired in a trade on Monday from the Torrent, in exchange for fellow forward Theresa Schafzahl. Eldridge, who wears number 18 for Boston, played 20:36 and registered one shot on goal. <\/p>\n

Jill Saulnier did not dress for Boston and is listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury. <\/p>\n

THREE STARS \u00a0<\/p>\n

1.\u00a0Daryl Watts (TOR) 1G \u2013 GWG
2. Raygan Kirk (TOR) 26\/26 SVS
3.\u00a0Aerin Frankel (BOS) 28\/29 SVS<\/p>\n

STANDINGS\u00a0
Boston:\u00a039\u00a0PTS (9-5-2-4) \u2013\u00a01st\u00a0Place\u00a0
Toronto:\u00a031\u00a0PTS (8-1-5-8) \u2013\u00a04th\u00a0Place<\/p>\n

UPCOMING SCHEDULES\u00a0<\/p>\n

Boston: Saturday, Mar. 21 vs. Seattle at 4 p.m. ET
Toronto: Friday, Mar. 27 vs. Boston at 7 p.m. ET<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR STATS<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights and Press Conferences available on\u00a0Boston\u00a0and\u00a0Toronto\u202f\u00a0YouTube channels\u202f\u202f\u00a0 BOSTON, MA (March 17, 2026) \u2013\u00a0 Raygan Kirk shut the door…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":543965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,3302],"class_list":["post-543964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=543964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/543964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/543965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=543964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=543964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=543964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}