Boston Pride forward Brianna Decker made history on Sunday in a 5-3 Boston Pride win over the Buffalo Beauts at Harborcenter. Decker netted the NWHL’s first ever hat trick, leading the Pride to solid a 3-0-0-0 record to start the inaugural season.
The Wisconsin native beat Beauts goaltender Brianne Mclaughlin in the first to open up the scoring for the Pride. After the Decker goal to start the game, the Pride would never trail, even though the Beauts would briefly tie the game up.
Brianna Decker (@Bdecker14) gets the first goal for @TheBostonPride. Pride leads 1-0 over the Beauts pic.twitter.com/HhfgUKKaSz
— NWHL Gifs (@nwhlgifs) October 25, 2015
Decker tallied again in the second to put Boston up 3-1. She then completed the hat trick into an empty net to ice the game for the Pride.
Brianna Decker (@Bdecker14) gets the first hat trick (🎩🎩🎩) in NWHL history with this empty netter. Pride wins 5-3. pic.twitter.com/mLJoZDlQwC
— NWHL Gifs (@nwhlgifs) October 25, 2015
Those three goals helped to propel Decker to the top of the NWHL in both goals (5) and points (7) at the end of the league’s third week of play.
Despite the five goals against, Mclaughlin turned in a good performance, stopping 43 of 48 shots as Boston nearly doubled up the shot total coming from Buffalo.
Through three games this season, the Pride lead the NWHL in goals scored with 16, a large portion of that coming in a 7-1 rout of the New York Riveters last weekend.
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Dustin Nelson is the News Editor for The Hockey Writers. He’s a contributor to Hockey Prospectus, Hockey Wilderness, and writes a column for Rotowire. He’s also written for Gone Puck Wild, Wild Xtra, InDigest, Electric Literature, The Rumpus, Tiny Mix Tapes, Prefix Magazine & other publications. Have a tip? Email him at dlukenelson[at]gmail[dot]com.
