OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Brianne Jenner had a goal and two assists and Jocelyne Larocque had goal and an assist to lead the Ottawa Charge past the New York Sirens 5-1 on Saturday.
Ronja Savolainen, Peyton Hemp and Rebecca Leslie also scored and Gwyneth Phillips stopped 23 shots for the Charge (8-7-1-12). They took a five-point lead on the Sirens and Toronto Sceptres for the fourth and final playoff spot with two games remaining.
Paetyn Levis scored for
the Sirens (9-2-3-1) and Kayle Osborne made 24 saves.
New York, which is 0-0-1-7 in its last eight road games, opened the scoring with a power-play goal midway through the first period when Levis took a pass in the slot and beat Philips on the stick side.
With 61 seconds remaining in the period, Jenner attempted to find Leslie in front, but the puck was redirected and went in off Leslie’s shoulder. The play underwent a lengthy review before the call was upheld.
The Charge took the lead at 7:54 of the second period.
Larocque blocked a shot to spark a short-handed rush as Jenner picked up the puck and broke in on Osborne. She gave up a big rebound that Larocque buried for her first of the season.
Just over six minutes later, Hemp won a race for the puck and knocked it free. That allowed Alexa Vasko to take possession and she sent it back to Hemp, who gave the Charge a 3-1 lead.
Ottawa scored a pair of goals in the third to put the game out of reach.
Savolainen scored from just inside the blue line through traffic. Larocque had a shot ring off the crossbar and Jenner buried the rebound.
Charge: Ottawa visits Boston on Wednesday.
Sirens: New York plays Toronto on Tuesday.
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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
