BOSTON — Another day, another close finish for the Boston Fleet.

Only this time, the league-leading Fleet were on the wrong side of the scoreboard.

Boston entered Tuesday night’s Professional Women’s Hockey League clash against the Toronto Sceptres accustomed to slim margins. And earning wins in eight of its last 12 straight one-goal games — the longest streak in league history — the Fleet has proved its mettle as a clutch team in crunch time.

But that formula couldn’t be replicated in a 2-0 loss to Toronto in front of 6,095 spirited fans at Agganis Arena in what was Boston’s first home loss of the season.

“I thought it was just a good, hard-fought game,” said Toronto head coach Troy Ryan. “We mentioned in between periods, it had sort of a playoff kind of attitude to it. It was very physical and heated.”

With the game scoreless early in the final period, the dangerous Daryl Watts beat Aerin Frankel through the five-hole to pot the game-winner with 11:01 to play before Blayre Turnbull iced the game in the final minute with an empty-net tally. The Fleet (9-5-2-4) still occupy the top spot in the standings despite the loss.

“She’s such an incredible goalie,” Watts said of Frankel. “It’s so hard to beat her. I feel like you got to try to make her move a little bit. So I was just cutting across and really tried to get her a little bit off balance and make her move a little bit.”

Tuesday marked Boston’s first home game in 48 days after a five-game road trip out of the Olympic break. Boston returns to the Tsongas Center on Saturday against the Seattle Torrent (4 p.m.), where it will play five of its remaining six regular season home games. On April 11, the Fleet is set to host the Montreal Victoire in front of a sold-out TD Garden.

Boston’s seven Olympians were honored throughout the game on Commonwealth Avenue, headlined by Team USA standouts Megan Keller, Haley Winn and Frankel, who had big roles in earning gold in Italy. Teammates Alina Müller (Switzerland), Daniela Pejšová (Czechia), Susanna Tapani (Finland) and Laura Kluge (Germany) were also recognized.

“I think every game in this league, you’re going to get everyone’s best,” Winn said of Tuesday’s intense matchup. “We were kind of talking about it before. You kind of have a target on your backs at the top of the standings. Every game is going to be a battle.”

The Fleet pulled out a thrilling comeback on Sunday in Montreal — overcoming a 3-0 deficit to stun the Victoire in overtime — but had no such magic on home ice.

“Our players have battled,” said Fleet head coach Kris Sparre. “We’ve been in a lot of close games that have gone right down to the wire and into overtime. I’m proud of our compete. It’s unfortunate we couldn’t get a win in front of this great crowd tonight.”

The Fleet were whistled for two infractions in the opening frame, but Boston’s stingy penalty kill stood tall to keep the Sceptres off the board.

Boston’s Shay Maloney perhaps had the best scoring opportunity on the first power play, freeing herself on a breakaway before Raygan Kirk got a piece of her wrist shot from the slot with her outstretched glove to avoid a shorthanded strike.

Frankel then made a sprawling save on Toronto’s Natalie Spooner on the doorstep to escape both power plays unscathed. The Fleet entered the game boasting the league’s second-best success rate on the kill (89.4%).

“The penalty kill has been great,” Sparre said. “The biggest thing with the type of system that we play is anticipation … we’ve been able to get clears down the ice, and tonight we had two breakaways.”

Boston then received a pair of power plays of its own but came up empty on both tries before heading right back to the penalty kill with 7:51 left in the middle frame. Spearheaded by another shorthanded breakaway from Maloney — who was challenged by Kirk en route to a save — Boston’s ultra-aggressive unit stayed perfect to keep the game scoreless entering the third period.

But it was Toronto that eventually broke through, as the smooth-skating Watts entered the offensive zone in transition before cutting to the middle of the ice and beating Frankel.

The Fleet went on the power play in the ensuing minutes after the goal and applied late pressure with the net empty in the final minute but were unable to solve Raygan. Toronto’s Turnbull put the finishing touches on the win with 26 seconds left.

“It was such a tight game,” Watts said. “We’re just glad that we came out on top in the last 15 minutes of the third.”

“We had some looks for sure,” Sparre said. The power play had a couple good looks … sometimes they go in, sometimes they don’t. We got to work on that for sure. It’s more of a mindset for me when you get into the critical areas of the ice in front of other team’s nets.”