Beauts win fourth straight with 4-1 victory over Pride

The Buffalo Beauts continued their torrid second half of the season over the weekend with a 4-1 decision against the Boston Pride at Harborcenter. A three-point game for Dani Cameranesi and a pair of goals from Maddie Elia helped propel the Beauts to their fourth-straight win.

“Their work ethic has been unbelievable,” head coach Cody McCormick said of his team during the win streak. “They come to work. Practice, in the gym; they’re putting a lot of effort into everything they do. Every meeting has a purpose and they’re really buying in to what we’re telling them.”

The four-game win streak for Buffalo is the team’s longest since a franchise-record 10-game win streak last year. This win marked the Beauts’ seventh win against the Pride in their last nine meetings after the team won just one of 11 games in the first two years of the matchup.

The Beauts and Pride are now tied with identical 8-4-0 records in a battle for home-ice advantage for the Isobel Cup Playoffs with four games left to play in the regular season. The teams trail only the Minnesota Whitecaps (10-4-0) for the NWHL lead.

Buffalo controlled play for a majority of the game, outshooting the Pride 47-21 to establish a new season-high in shots. Their previous mark (40) was set in the last meeting between the teams, on Jan. 5 in Buffalo.

Annika Zalewski netted the Beauts’ first goal of the game after a backhand pass from Taylor Accursi found Zalewski on the right side of the net, getting the puck behind Boston’s Katie Burt.

“The first goal was huge,” Zalewski said. “Any game you want to put the first one in and just grab that momentum early. That was big for us to get the first goal and go from there.”

With a goal and two assists, Cameranesi tied her season-high scoring performance, set Oct. 13 vs. Connecticut. It marked her fifth multipoint game of the season, three of which have come in the past four games. She also has seven points during the team’s current win streak.

Also with a multipoint performance, Elia’s two-goal game extended her multipoint streak to four games. During that span, the Lewiston native has 10 points (5 goals, 5 assists). With the pair of goals, Elia finished the day in sole possession of the league lead with 11. She also moved into third on the Beauts’ all-time scoring list with 16 career goals. She trails Kelley Steadman (18) and teammate Hayley Scamurra (17).

Goaltending also continued to be a bright spot for the Beauts, as Shannon Szabados stopped 20 of 21 Pride shots in the victory. Boston’s Jillian Dempsey netted the lone goal in the second period. In the Beauts’ past four games, Buffalo has allowed just two goals on 109 shots (.982 save percentage).

Buffalo will be back in action Saturday when the Beauts face the Metropolitan Riveters (3-9-0) at the Barnabas Health Hockey House in Newark, New Jersey. Faceoff is slated for 2 p.m. Buffalo won the first of three regular-season meetings against the Riveters on Jan. 12 by a score of 5-1.