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“Müller was the best player on the ice tonight for both teams.”
LOWELL — To Fleet coach Kris Sparre, a power play is two minutes and three seconds long.
After the penalty ends, it takes a skater about three seconds to get from the box back into the action, and that’s all the time Alina Müller needed to score the game’s first goal Wednesday night at Tsongas Center.
As time expired on a Sceptres penalty in the opening minute of the second period, Haley Winn rifled a shot from the top of the circle, and Müller got her stick on it for the tip-in.
Shay Maloney added an insurance goal in the third period, and Boston survived a late push from a physical Toronto team to stay undefeated at its home rinks with a 2-1 win.
With the 3 points from the regulation win in hand, the Fleet remain firmly atop the PWHL standings (8-0-2-2, 26 points), 7 ahead of second-place Montreal.
“Müller was the best player on the ice tonight for both teams,” Sparre said. “She was outstanding, and so much of the work that she does on the ice goes unnoticed.”
The goal was Müller’s second of the season and first since an empty-netter on Nov. 29, also a win over Toronto.
“I’ve had it before — some goal droughts,” Müller said. “Unfortunately, I’m kind of used to it, but you learn from every experience. And this [goal] was probably the one I tried to put in the net the least out of all the chances I’ve had the past few games.”
The Swiss forward’s tally was all the more satisfying for the Fleet given officials waived off what would have been a power-play goal from captain Megan Keller in the first period because of goaltender interference. It was a play Boston has converted on numerous occasions this season and one it practices at length — Winn slots it to Keller in the circle, and Keller puts all her strength behind a one-timer.
“Our A-plus option is Keller hitting the bomb, but we also have a ton of other options within that,” Sparre said. “I thought that we adjusted well, and we still had some pretty good looks after that.”
After the goal was waived off, the Fleet’s versatile power play had to adjust — something the players anticipated having to do given how much success Keller and the rest of the top unit (Müller, Winn, Susanna Tapani, and Abby Newhook) have had this season.
“We definitely came prepared knowing that they were going to be sitting on [Keller] pretty hard,” Winn said.
Boston goes down in the books as 0 for 5 on the power play against the Sceptres, but regardless, the special teams were a highlight for Sparre.
Toronto has the worst power play in the league (2 for 26) and went 0 for 2 against Boston’s league-leading penalty-kill unit (26 of 27).
“The identity of the penalty kill is we want to pressure and not let you set up, and I think those trigger points on the penalty kill are really clear,” Sparre said. “They’re concise. Our players know when to go.”
With under three minutes remaining in the game and the Fleet nursing the 1-0 lead, Maloney fired a shot on Toronto goaltender Raygan Kirk, who made a pad save, and Maloney charged the net to slot home her own rebound for a two-goal cushion.
Maloney has practiced that play “a ton,” she said, and made a concerted effort to elevate the puck into the top corner over Kirk’s pads.
Toronto’s Emma Maltais broke Aerin Frankel’s shutout bid when she snuck one through the goaltender’s five-hole off a scramble out front with 1:42 remaining in the game, and Boston outlasted a six-on-five push to maintain the lead.
Through 12 games, the Fleet have carried a lead into the third period 11 times, and have come away with regulation wins in eight of those contests.
“What that shows is that we’re a team that certainly knows how to close out games, because we’ve done that quite a bit,” Sparre said. “But at the same time, learning how to win in big moments is a real-deal thing. There’s championship detail in there.”
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