The NWHL’s Metropolitan Riveters announced that they will not be participating in the rest of the NWHL season due to concerns surrounding COVID. This announcement comes after the team has gone 2-1 through their first three games on the season.
The Metropolitan Riveters are pulling out of the @NWHL Lake Placid tournament due to “health and safety concerns” related to COVID-19, multiple sources tell ESPN. Story to come.
— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 28, 2021
NWHL’s Metropolitan Riveters Pull Out of Lake Placid Bubble
This news comes two days after the Riveters last game against the Minnesota Whitecaps where they lost 1-0. The Riveters performed well in their short time in the league’s bubble in Lake Placid, New York. The team’s two wins came against the Toronto Six, on the season’s opening night, and the Connecticut Whale in a 4-3 thriller. The team’s leading scorer, Leila Kilduff, has scored one goal and two assists for three points, a point-per-game pace. In goal for the Riveters, they were lead by goaltender Sonjia Shelly. Shelly appeared in all three games and posited a .987 save percentage and a stellar .50 goals-against-average. The team last won the league championship, the Isobel Cup, during the 2018 season.
Head coach Ivo Mocek had left the bench midway through the game and never returned. Later on, a player for the Riveters, Rebecca Russo, left the bench and didn’t return to the game as well.
What This Means for the Future
With the NWHL Metropolitan Riveters exiting the bubble the league is going to have to do some schedule and format maneuvering to make up for the odd number of teams remaining. Their next game was scheduled for tomorrow night against the Buffalo Beauts at 5:30 PM EST. This season the games from the bubble have been streamed online on the popular video streaming website, Twitch. The league is also set to have its playoffs broadcast on national TV on NBC starting in February.
Founded in 2015 as the New York Riveters, the team has been apart of the NWHL since the league’s founding in 2015.
Main Photo:
Embed from Getty Images
