LOWELL, Mass. — Jessie Eldridge scored the first of four Boston goals in the third period, and Aerin Frankel finished with 30 saves to lead the Fleet to a 4-0 victory over the New York Sirens on Saturday, closing out the regular season.
Boston (16-5-4-5) can still finish first if the expansion Seattle Torrent upset the Montreal Victoire in Seattle on Saturday night. The first-place team gets to choose which of the other three playoff teams it wants to play in the first round.
Boston, Montreal and the two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost had already clinched postseason spots. The Ottawa Charge earned the fourth and final berth by beating the Toronto Sceptres 3-0 on Saturday.
Frankel has eight shutouts this season and extended her scoreless streak against the Sirens to 130:54.
Eldridge used an assist from Megan Keller to score 2:53 into the final period and end a scoreless tie. It was the 14th goal for Eldridge and her seventh in her last eight matches.
Ella Huber gave the Fleet a two-goal lead less than five minutes later. Keller notched her 15th assist on a power-play goal by Haley Winn for a 3-0 lead, and Jill Saulnier scored into an empty net with 5:04 remaining to finish.
It was the fourth goal for Huber, the fifth for Winn and the second for Saulnier. Liz Schepers had two assists.
Frankel had 16 saves in the first period, while her teammates got off just one shot.
Micah Zandee-Hart had a shot hit the crossbar in the final seconds of the second period for New York, which had an 8-7 edge in shots.
The Fleet fired off 16 shots in the final period against Callie Shanahan, who finished with 24 saves in her fourth start of the season for New York (9-3-3-15).