From Championship To Game Five

It may have been coincidence that both Minnesota's Taylor Heise and Boston's Alina Müller were on this promotional poster for the PWHL's Walter Cup Championship series, but the fact that they both played a big part in the most pivotal game of the series to this point is pretty interesting. Game Four of the championship final went tonight, and it was a big one at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota as PWHL Minnesota held a 2-1 series lead over PWHL Boston. It looked like the Walter Cup was on the verge of being awarded, but it will make the trip back to Lowell, Massachusetts after the dust settled on this one.

In what was a first for me this week, I had a chance to watch playoff hockey. Say what you want, but everything pointed to this game being far more entertaining than anything else being offered on the Sunday of a Memorial Day weekend in the US, and I would have opted for the PWHL over the NHL had they gone head-to-head. With the Walter Cup in the building, there was history to be made!

The game was still tied 0-0 in double-overtime as both netminders - Boston's Aerin Frankel and Minnesota's Nicole Hensley - had zero interest in going home early. Both teams had their chances, but it would be a rush by Minnesota that saw the crowd erupt in jubilation.
As you saw in the video, Taylor Heise took the puck to the net around the defender, but loses her edge and slides into Aerin Frankel in the crease. As the puck found its way to Sophie Jaques, she buried it for what looked like the championship-winning goal. However, after the officials reviewed the play, it was determined that Heise wasn't pushed into Frankel nor taken down by the defender, and the goal was waved off as Minnesota celebrated.

If you were thinking the same thing I was, yes, the Minnesota players had to collect their gear and get recomposed to continue a game they believed they had won. How they would do that after that release of emotion seems rather impossible to me, but this is why I'm not competing for the top prize in professional women's hockey. With everyone dressed and on the bench again, the game resumed late in double-overtime with the teams still tied at 0-0!

And wouldn't you know it, but exactly one minute after the Minnesota celebration ended and yard sale was cleaned up, this happened.
Alina Müller forces Kendall Coyne Schofield to make a bad pass from the wall that goes off the skate of Heise and is picked up by Theresa Schafzahl. Schafzahl drops the puck to Müller as she goes to the middle of the ice, and Müller unleashes a wrist shot high glove-side on Hensley to end this game after 98:36 of goalless hockey as Bostons wins 1-0 to force Game Five back at the Tsongas Center.

"After that overturned goal, I knew we were going to get it," Müller said to reporters. "We had more power, more speed. It was on our side.... Now we're going to bring it home and we're going to finish it. Unbelievable effort."

For Minnesota, they need to find a way to shake this game off after celebrating what appeared to be a championship goal only to lose one minute later and be forced to head back to Massachusetts for Game Five where one of these teams will be crowned as champions.

"We had lots of chances to win this game," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said. "So, for us, we get to play another game and that's the way we have to look at it. It wasn't a do-or-die for us. This one hurt but now we go back to work."

Klee's mentality is the right one to have, but it will be a question of whether those "we had it" feelings can be squashed in each Minnesota player. They'll need everyone onboard to bounce back with the biggest win of the season when it comes to claiming the Walter Cup, so having that opportunity to make good once more might be what the team needs.

Boston, meanwhile, will rely on their wall known as Aerin Frankel while trying to break through the Minnesota defensive system once again. If anything, Müller should be given a bigger role in Game Five considering it was her initial play that led to the turnover, but Loren Gabel, Lexie Adzija, and Sophie Shirley have to give Boston a little more depth to have their top stars ready to flex in the latter stages of the game. Courtney Kessel will need to manage that ice time, but Boston has shown that they have the depth to win the whole thing.

One of Minnesota or Boston will celebrate late into the night on Wednesday as the first-ever PWHL champions. The game is scheduled for 7pm ET, so adjust accordingly for your time zone if you want to witness some hockey history. If you're in the Lowell region, get to Tsongas Center to see the game in-person because it should be a beauty! The PWHL season is coming to a close on Wednesday, and we'll know which of Minnesota or Boston stands atop the mountain!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!