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Bender, Morse, Richards win NWHL All-Star Fan Vote

We now know 11 of the NWHL’s 2020 All-Stars

Today the NWHL announced that defenders Lexi Bender (Boston Pride) and Rebecca Morse (Metropolitan Riveters) and forward Audra Richards (Minnesota Whitecaps) received the most votes in the league’s Fan Vote Hat Trick for the 2020 NWHL All-Star Weekend in Boston. Over 15,000 fans voted to send their favorite player to the event and, per the league’s press release, each player in the league received at least one vote.

We now know 11 of the All-Stars for the 2020 NWHL All-Star Game as all eight of the original NWHL players in the league were announced as All-Stars previously. Here is a breakdown of the players that each team will be represented by for the league’s historic fifth all-star game.

Boston Pride
Jillian Dempsey, Kaleigh Fratkin, Lexi Bender

Buffalo Beauts
Corinne Buie

Connecticut Whale
Jordan Brickner, Shannon Doyle, Elena Orlando

Metropolitan Riveters
Madison Packer, Kiira Dosdall, Rebecca Morse

Minnesota Whitecaps
Audra Richards

Lexi Bender is in her fourth season in the NWHL, all of which have been spent patrolling the Pride’s blue line. The 11th pick of the 2015 NWHL Draft, Bender is one point shy of doubling her production from what was previously her highest-scoring NWHL season in 2016-17. She is a fixture on the Pride’s second d-pair with fellow veteran Lauren Kelly and has been instrumental to Boston’s undefeated record. This will be her third All-Star appearance.

Rebecca Morse is also having a career year. She has scored three goals and picked up four assists to lead all Rivs’ blueliners in scoring. Prior to this season, Morse had four points in 31 games across three seasons playing both as a forward and defender for the Riveters. Her highlight of the season is undoubtedly the overtime goal she scored against Minnesota to give the Riveters their first win of the 2019-20 campaign. This is her first All-Star appearance.

Rebecca Morse flourishing in return to the blue line

Audra Richards, who attended the 2019 All-Star Game in Nashville as a rookie with the Riveters, has turned it on after a slow start. After picking up three points in her first eight games of the season, Richards moved up from Minnesota’s third line into a more featured role and began to pile up points. Heading into this weekend’s games against the Buffalo Beauts, she has seven points in her last six games. This is her second All-Star weekend as she was the fan vote last season as well.

Disclosure: the author of this piece is currently employed by the NWHL.

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