Spooner's 2-goal night guides Sceptres over Victoire

TORONTO (AP) — Natalie Spooner scored her first two goals of the season and the Toronto Sceptres beat the PWHL-leading Montreal Victoire 4-1 on Thursday night.

The league MVP a year ago, Spooner has played six games since returning from a knee injury sustained in the playoffs. She scored both goals on power plays.

Allie Munroe and Maggie Connors also scored and Kristen Campbell made 25 saves to help Toronto beat Montreal for the first time in five games this season.

Marie-Philip Poulin scored for Montreal.

Takeaways

Victoire: Montreal remains six points ahead of second-place Toronto in the PWHL standings with one game in hand.

Sceptres: Toronto is 1-0-2-2 against Montreal this campaign after going undefeated in five games against the Victoire last season.

Key moment

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 5:48 into the first period for the opening goal.

Key stat

Toronto was 2 for 4 on the power play.

Up next

The Victoire are at Boston on Saturday. The Sceptres host Minnesota on Sunday.

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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey