PWHL Toronto forward and Canadian women’s national team star Natalie Spooner will be “unavailable for the remainder of the season,” the team announced on Wednesday ahead of Game 4 of the semifinals.
Spooner suffered a knee injury during Game 3 of the series against Minnesota on Monday night. The incident occurred in the third period; Spooner took a hit along the boards, crawled off the ice and did not return to the game. There was no penalty called on the play.
Natalie Spooner went to the locker room after this pic.twitter.com/DP70rQbVy4
— Omar (@TicTacTOmar) May 14, 2024
“It’s a big loss for us, obviously Natalie has been an important part of our success all year,” Toronto general manager Gina Kingsbury said in a statement. “We have no doubt Natalie will continue to have an impact on our team, just in a different way.”
The 33-year-old led the PWHL in goals (20) and points (27) this season and is the favorite to win the league’s first MVP award. She scored the first goal of the PWHL Playoffs in Game 1 of the semifinals on May 5.
Losing Spooner is a massive blow to Toronto at the most important time of the year.
Spooner is the most dominant power forward in women’s hockey and has been a critical driver of Toronto’s offense. In the regular season, Spooner…
