Fratkin leads undefeated Pride
Blue liner says ‘playing simple’ key to success
The Pride have faced every situation but a loss.
They’ve had close calls; a shootout against then-winless Connecticut and some tight games with the Riveters — including Monday — have challenged them.
That’s not to say no one on the team knows what a loss feels like. Kaleigh Fratkin is the second longest-tenured member of the team, and she’s having a career season.
It just happens to align with potentially the Pride’s best season ever.
“Fratty, she’s just an unbelievable player, all around,” said Pride head coach Paul Mara, who coached them to a 5-3 win on Sunday to improve to 19-0-0. “She plays the game the right way. She plays hard every shift, every play she makes is done intentionally. I think this year she’s had more powerplay time, which has helped; she has probably the hardest shot in the league. She’s one of the toughest defenders to play against so she’s playing against top lines and getting a lot of minutes out there.”
Even with those tough defensive minutes, Fratkin is fourth in the league with 15 assists and her 18 points in 19 games surpass her careerhigh of 17 in 18 games from her first season with Connecticut.
The Pride’s forwards do plenty offensively, with the league’s leading points getter on the team and a top line of three all-stars, but much of the offense also comes from the blue line, and Fratkin is their leader.
“I’m playing simple,” she said. “I do like to jump up in the rush but I feel like times when I’m overthinking things don’t go your way. Trying to get a lot of shots on net, this is the most I’ve ever shot at all in my entire career in the NWHL, so the biggest thing is shooting the puck and bounces will come. Just trying to keep it very, very simple.”
All-star defender Lexi Bender was paired with Fratkin on Monday, and she opened the scoring as she worked down low to give the Pride their first lead 9:15 into the game. She flipped a backhander past Riveters goalie Sam Walther on a dish from Tori Sullivan.
Sullivan doubled the Pride lead with her 12th goal of the season with just 2:34 left in the first.
New Hampshire product Kate Leary got the Riveters on the board with a deke and backhand past Pride goalie Victoria Hanson with just 30 seconds left in the first. They carried that momentum into the second period, where they tied it.
Early in the middle frame Brooke Avery netted her fourth goal of the year to make it 2-2, despite just six shots on net from the Rivs all game to that point.
McKenna Brand broke the tie with 15:44 left before Tatiana Shatalova knotted it back up, but Pride blue liner Mallory Souliotis made it a 4-3 lead with 10:57 to go, and Christina Putigna sealed it with 2:34 left.
Two defenders lighting the lamp was the difference in the score, and the way things have gone for the blue line, that’s no coincidence.
“We have defensemen who can jump up and put pucks in net, but we have such an offensive presence that I think when we get too cute to jump into plays we shoot ourselves in the foot,” said Fratkin. “More simple play from the defensemen has happened as a whole, and when we started that good things came of it.”