Daryl Watts hit the ice on Saturday with a singular goal: shut down Toronto’s win streak.
By game’s end, she had three — goals, that is — her hat trick propelling PWHL Ottawa to a statement win.
“It felt great,” Watts says of the 5-3 victory that handed Toronto its first loss since late January and halted the Ontario rival’s 11-game run. “To be at home in front of the crowd — and the crowd was huge that night, so that was amazing — and to end Toronto’s streak and then to get a win before we go into this three-week break, there’s just a lot of good positives.”
The victory couldn’t have come at a better time for Ottawa, a team heating up at a pivotal point in the season. The club now finds itself in fourth place, sitting in playoff position with a five-point lead over fifth-place Boston and five games to go once the PWHL schedule picks up again in mid-April, following the break for the women’s world championship.
Ottawa’s win over New York last week, on the same night Toronto edged Boston, saw the club in the nation’s capital jump into the post-season picture for the first time all year and tee up an important matchup on Saturday to stay there.
“It just seemed like the most perfect opportunity to end their streak,” says Watts.
After Toronto jumped to a 2-0 lead with a pair of markers from PWHL scoring leader Natalie Spooner, Watts got Ottawa on the board with just five seconds left in the frame. She credits teammates Gabbie Hughes, newly launched from the penalty box to tee up a power play (Toronto’s Renata Fast was just 30 seconds into a roughing minor at the time), and Savannah Harmon for driving to the net and making space for Watts to receive a pass from Brianne Jenner.
“Kristen Campbell, she’s a big goalie, so I just figured, you know, a low blocker shot would be a smart idea,” Watts says. “And it worked out. We went into the third with a goal and that was awesome.”
Harmon also helped set up Watts’ second goal, a third-period score that wound up being the game-winner.
“Harmon had the puck and she made a beautiful pass — like, the most perfect bank pass — to me, so I kind of had a half breakaway … and then I kind of reached it over Soupy’s shoulder,” explains Watts. “Soupy,” she’s quick to note, is Campbell, her pal — and, on Saturday, her opponent. They were roommates at Wisconsin when Watts first transferred to the Badgers in 2019-20, and have remained great friends since.
The two shared a little laugh post-game about some first-period hijinks in Campbell’s crease when Watts went barreling into the netminder and earned herself a two-minute minor for goalie interference. “It wasn’t me!” the Ottawa forward insists with a smile, adamant that she was pushed. No hard feelings, though. Such is life in the PWHL, when every stop on the schedule brings you face-to-face with former teammates and friends-turned-frenemies for 60-minute increments.
Campbell was on the bench for Watts’ third goal of the night, an empty-netter with another helper from Jenner.
Watts heaps praise on her captain and linemate, who drew Toronto’s defenders in before firing it to Watts.
“She knew that I was coming up the wall, so she dished it to me,” Watts says of the play. “She kind of sucked everyone in, sprung me, and then I kind of cut to the middle because there were a bunch of Toronto players trying to block the net, and then I just shot it into the net.”
Watts is feeling the chemistry with Jenner and fellow linemate Katerina Mrázová — “we’re in rhythm, we feel good,” she says.
It certainly shows. Watts, who entered the game with five goals to her name, now sits tied for third in league goal-scoring, alongside New York’s Alex Carpenter and Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin. The 24-year-old, held to just one goal and two points through the first nine games of the season, is enjoying a run of success with four goals in her last two games and seven points in her last five.
Watts says it feels “shocking” to see her name so high on the league leaderboard now. “Up until five games ago, I was having probably the worst — not probably, I was having the worst — season of my life,” she says. “I wasn’t producing at the beginning of the year. I wasn’t getting a lot of minutes. So, it was just a mental struggle — you’re not playing a lot, you don’t have confidence.”
She’s grateful to put the team’s season-opening woes in the rear-view mirror and optimistic about the road ahead.
“At the beginning of the season, we were at the bottom for a bit and it sucked, to be honest,” says Watts. “In the locker room, we couldn’t help but be down and be confused.”
Up next, five days off for Watts and the league’s other players not headed to Utica, N.Y., for the worlds, followed by a return to practices and training until the tournament wraps up. And after that, it’s an all-out sprint to the playoffs.
“It’s crazy how things turned — and they’ve turned quickly,” she says. “All of a sudden, it’s like, ‘Wait, we’re in fourth place. We could catch the top three teams!’”