The Metropolitan Riveters will face the Boston Pride for the sixth time on Monday and hope to hand them their first loss of the season. Spoiler alert, it will be an extremely difficult feat. 

The Boston Pride have broken an NWHL record by going 18-0 this season, with the longest win streak in one season. While obviously, this is still impressive, it must be noted that prior to this season, only 16 games were played in a season. 

The Riveters were able to be the first team to score first in a game against the Pride this season, but the team that has come the closest to actually beating them is the last place Connecticut Whale. The Whale took them to a shootout and ultimately lost, before breaking their losing streak against the Rivs. Basically, the odds are definitely not in Metropolitan’s favor. 

Boston Still Playing Injured

While the Pride claim the league’s best goalie in Lovisa Selander, they have been without some pretty key pieces to their offense in Mary Parker and Alyssa Wohlfieler. 

Coming off of a sold-out home win for Denna Day, the Pride are buzzing and not looking to stop anytime soon. However, if the Riveters can capitalize off of the small holes in their lineup and can minimize their penalties, they may be able to spark something. 

Unfortunately for them, they are also without Ashley Johnston and Anna Keys, two irreplaceable aspects of their defense. 

A bright side to this game is that the Riveters will only have one more matchup with the Pride following it, and can focus on solidifying their third-place spot and possibly chipping away at second place in the standings with a lot of home games against the lower-ranked opponents. 

Players To Watch

Kate Leary: I feel like Leary had a bit of a quiet set of games last weekend by her standards, which just means it’s time to bounce back and make some magic. 

Kendall Cornine: Of Cornine’s 12 goals on the season, six have been against the Pride. If anyone is going to spark something against them, it’s going to be Cornine with Packer getting the assist. 

Leila Kilduff: Getting on the top defensive pair with Rebecca Morse will hopefully push Kilduff with the confidence and energy to play her game. Kiira Dosdall is back in the lineup but not playing in her usual spot. Instead, Kilduff is. I believe she is due for a breakout game.

Predictions 

Despite the recent shakeup in the league and injuries, I don’t foresee the Riveters being the first to conquer the big, bad Pride. At least not this time around. I’ll predict a close game in 5-3, but give the Pride another win.

The game will be at 1:30 pm EST in Boston and streamed on the NWHL Twitch channel as always.