ELMONT, N.Y. – When it comes to Alex Carpenter, actions speak much louder than words. And her play has been so impressive that Carpenter is right in the middle MVP consideration nearly halfway through the inaugural PWHL season.
Carpenter furthered her case here at UBS Arena on Wednesday, when her fingerprints were all over New York’s 3-2 shootout win against Montreal.
First, the 29-year-old forward opened the scoring at 2:43 of the first period. On the power-play, she flew up left wing before unleashing a wicked snipe that zipped over the right shoulder of Ann-Renee Desbiens bar-down. A goal-scorer’s goal.
Carpenter kept the good times rolling, scoring the first shorthanded goal in franchise history with 1:13 left in the opening period. On this one, Carpenter showed off her smarts and feel for the game, constantly moving like a shark in the slot to find the one open area where teammate Abby Roque could find her with a pass from behind the net.
What was Carpenter’s reaction postgame to the two goals?
“Honestly, just doing whatever I can to help out,” Carpenter explained. “A couple great plays from Abby Roque and just from top down, everyone making plays.”
PWHL star Alex Carpenter ‘one of the best players in the world’
Again, it’s not about Carpenter’s words, because you’re not going to get her to say much about herself. But her on-ice heroics, and the words of others, speak volumes.
“She has to be one of the best players in the world,” New York goalie Abbey Levy said.
Levy knows a thing or two about Carpenter. Not only are they teammates in New York, as well as roommates off the ice, but Levy and Carpenter have played together on United States national teams, including winning a gold medal at the 2023 Women’s World Championship.
“I’m just so grateful that she is on our team,” Levy continued. “She’s a teammate that has non-stop compete, just always going. That’s something where we all feed off of her. It’s nice to have one of the best players in the world on the New York squad.”
Carpenter wasn’t done influencing the outcome of the game Wednesday simply by scoring the first two goals. After Montreal rallied to tie the game and a five-minute overtime passed without a score, New York won it in the shootout.
Carpenter scored off a delayed move and snap finish from in tight against Desbiens in the fourth round of the shootout to help ice the victory.
“I saw [Elizabeth] Giguere try to go 5-hole before and that was my plan going in. But I saw something different, did something different,” Carpenter explained in a matter-of-fact manner.
The great ones see things the rest of us do not. And they can do things the rest of us can not.
Carpenter is a great one, a two-time Olympic silver medalist who leads the PWHL with 14 points in 11 games. Carpenter’s eight goals trail only Toronto forward Natalie Spooner, who has 10, and her three power-play goals are tied for most in the league.
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Speaking to her importance, Carpenter has a point on 54 percent of New York’s 26 goals this season.
But New York coach Howie Draper said that Carpenter’s value to the team extends past the score sheet.
“She is one of the most focused athletes that I know,” Draper shared. “She’s got a very keen eye for what she wants to accomplish and so that’s what I’m learning most about her. Everything else on the perimeter does not matter, she’s focused on the task, she wants to win that next battle, she wants to get that next goal. And she’s been able to do that for us consistently.”
So intense is Carpenter that defenseman Jaime Bourbonnais admitted to Sportsnaut that she was intimidated by her new teammate at the start of training camp.
The two had faced off many times over the years in international play, Bourbonnais for Canada, Carpenter the U.S. And it took a bit for Bourbonnais to realize back in November that Carpenter is “an amazing person.”
“This is the type of player and person we want leading our team.She has all the right values we want here,” New York general manager Pascal Daoust told Sportsnaut.
Skill, results, leadership, values.
And perhaps an MVP trophy at the end of this PWHL season.