Emily Clark\u2019s contributions might not be showing up on the scoresheet in this post-season, but her success in a shutdown role has been big for the Ottawa Charge.<\/p>\n
The Charge trail the Montr\u00e9al Victoire 2-1 in the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League\u2019s best-of-five Walter Cup final, with Game 4 set for Wednesday in Ottawa.<\/p>\n
Clark has the unenviable task of shutting down the Montreal Victoire\u2019s top line, featuring captain Marie-Philip Poulin.<\/p>\n
Poulin has been held to just two assists through the first three games and Clark, along with linemates Gabbie Hughes and Peyton Hemp, have been instrumental in restricting her opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, there\u2019s a lot of heavy minutes there for the (Hughes, Clark, Hemp) line, and obviously Ronja (Savolainen) and Rory (Guilday) on the back end,\u201d said Charge head coach Carla MacLeod. \u201cJoce (Larocque) and (Brooke) Hobson have also garnered some of those minutes. It\u2019s an important component of course. You know they\u2019re a very talented team, Montreal is. We\u2019ve seen it time in and time out.”<\/p>\n
While there were times Monday night that Montreal was able to get a better matchup for the Poulin line, MacLeod said having last change at home is helpful.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, you get an opportunity at home to try and get that crew out against them and you let them go do what they\u2019re so good at doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a different post-season for Clark. Last season the 30-year-old had three goals and two assists through eight games and was an offensive threat every time she was on the ice. This year, Clark is still looking for her first point of the playoffs.<\/p>\n
She has had chances, but capitalizing on them has been a challenge, something that persisted throughout much of the season. After scoring nine goals and recording 19 points a year ago, she managed just three goals and nine points this season.<\/p>\n
But MacLeod knows Clark\u2019s value goes far beyond the scoresheet.<\/p>\n
“Her effort is always through the roof,” said MacLeod. “You never have to worry about Emily. When she comes to the rink she\u2019s the consummate professional. She\u2019s going to be all in for our crew and she has been every game she\u2019s played here in Ottawa for us\u2026Emily\u2019s the heartbeat of this team and has been for so long and she\u2019s continuing to lead the way.”<\/p>\n
While it might not get the same recognition as an offensive spark, Clark is enjoying the challenge of playing a shutdown role.<\/p>\n
“You have to have a lot of respect and be aware of them,” said Clark of Poulin and her linemates. “They\u2019re incredible players and some of the best in the world, obviously. So, I think our team\u2019s done a really good job trying to manage them and for us any time we can have that matchup it\u2019s something we get excited about.”<\/p>\n
Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie knows the Charge will be looking to come out with a similar effort Wednesday to their 2-1 comeback win in Game 3 looking to push the series back to Montreal for a decisive showdown.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“I thought that we need to continue to match their urgency and play our style of game,” said Cheverie.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Asked what areas she wanted her team to tighten up heading into Game 4, Cheverie wasn\u2019t willing to give much away.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that on both sides of the puck we\u2019d like to be better with the puck and we\u2019d like to be better without the puck,\u201d Cheverie said. \u201cAnd I think, you know, that\u2019s something that we\u2019ll find the adjustments that we need to make and we\u2019ll make them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily Clark\u2019s contributions might not be showing up on the scoresheet in this post-season, but her success in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":680796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194295],"tags":[49,48,20739],"class_list":["post-680795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ottawa","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-ottawa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680795","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=680795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/680795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/680796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=680795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=680795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=680795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}