NWHL announces first suspension, changes bench door rules

The NWHL has reviewed two incidents from this weekend. Here we go:

Taylor Holze injury in New York Riveters at Boston Pride

Taylor Holze was skating along the boards and NWHL All-Star Zoe Hickel hit her into what would have been the wall of the bench, except the door was open. So, Holze unfortunately slammed into the side of the bench wall and was hurt. Here's the video:

The NWHL has changed the bench door rules as a result. Here's the announcement of the new rule:

As a result of this play, the NWHL has decided to enact a rule that all bench doors must remain closed during game action. The exceptions to this rule include the following and violations will result in a bench minor penalty.

1. If an injured player is in the process of leaving the ice
2. If a goaltender is in the process of being pulled
3. Between whistles and in-between periods

The second incident was historic, in that (spoiler) it resulted in the first NWHL suspension.

Molly Engstrom hit on Meghan Duggan in Buffalo Beauts at Connecticut Whale

We've seen games get pretty chippy between the Pride and the Riveters...and the Beauts...and the Whale. They hate losing, okay? Anyways, in this game, Molly Engstrom punched Meghan Duggan in the head and dropped her pretty bad. She was ejected and suspended for the next game. As the NWHL season is 18 games, that's the equivalent of a 5 game suspension if applied to certain other leagues with 82 game schedules. Here's the video:

What do you think of the decisions?