Step apart, Auston Matthews. Girls’s hockey is taking heart stage in Toronto, the place Natalie Spooner, Sarah Nurse & Co. open the PWHL playoffs in opposition to Minnesota on Wednesday.
In the meantime, the game’s most outstanding faces — Boston’s Hilary Knight and Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin — are including a brand new wrinkle to their longstanding U.S.-Canada rivalry within the PWHL’s different semifinal, which opens Thursday.
“One other alternative to win, proper?” Knight stated of going through Poulin in knowledgeable setting following an exciting 6-5 time beyond regulation loss within the gold-medal recreation on the girls’s world championships final month.
“You hear about these two names and what an unbelievable matchup for (followers), and a real Unique Six matchup, proper?” she added. “If I can simply step out of simply me as a competitor, I feel that is what you need.”
The celebs proceed aligning for the Skilled Girls’s Hockey League in its first season, and after lastly bringing collectively the world’s prime gamers below one umbrella. Following a 72-game common season that featured record-breaking crowds and the playoff image not settled till the ultimate horn sounded on Sunday, the PWHL enters its postseason with a pair of best-of-five collection crammed with subplots.
In Stanley Cup-starved Toronto, the place the Maple Leafs haven’t reached the ultimate since successful the championship in 1967, the PWHL group is using excessive after ending first within the standings.
“First, I’ve to say that I’m unhappy the Leafs are finished,” Toronto captain Blayre Turnbull stated, referring to the Leafs’ newest first-round exit after dropping Sport 7 to Boston final weekend. “I hoped they might go on a little bit of a run. However I feel for us to be within the highlight now, it’s one thing that we’re actually enthusiastic about.”
By ending first, Toronto earned the best to pick its opponent and went with fourth-place Minnesota over third-place Boston — two groups that completed with equivalent 12-9-3 data, with Boston having the tiebreaking edge.
Factoring within the choice was Toronto going 3-1 in opposition to Minnesota within the common season, versus 3-2 vs. Boston. One other potential benefit was Minnesota coming into the playoffs on a five-game skid, whereas Boston closed 3-1-1, together with a 2-1 win over Toronto.
For Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, the playoffs characterize a contemporary begin.
“You must take a look at the season as an entire. I feel it’s very easy to take a look at the final 5 video games, to take a look at what didn’t go effectively for us,” Coyne Schofield stated. “We’ve put collectively some nice hockey this 12 months. … And we sit up for going into Toronto with that clear slate.”
There’s championship stress in Montreal, the place the Canadiens in 1993 have been Canada’s final group to win the Cup.
“That’s clearly one thing that I’m positive each coach in Montreal doesn’t take calmly,” Montreal coach Kori Cheverie stated. “To have the ability to convey a championship again to Montreal, I feel can be celebrated by all of the groups, and can be one thing extraordinarily thrilling for our followers and for town.”
Minnesota’s lineup is crowded with present and former U.S. nationwide group gamers, from Coyne Schofield and Grace Zumwinkle to Kelly Pannek, Taylor Heise and Lee Stecklein. And it’s backstopped by Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney, the identical tandem that led the U.S. to gold on the 2018 Olympics.
Toronto has a Canadian nationwide group taste to it, with a mind belief made up of Workforce Canada GM Gina Kingsbury and coach Troy Ryan.
The roster options three gamers who completed within the top-10 in league factors, led by Spooner, who had a league-leading 20 objectives and 27 factors, In internet, Kristen Campbell paced the league with 16 wins, three shutouts and 22 video games performed, whereas rating second with a 1.99 goals-against common.
Whereas Minnesota’s stoop got here on the finish of the season, Toronto overcame a 2-5 begin to reel off 11 straight wins and end 17-7.
Minnesota coach Ken Klee was happy to have Toronto decide his group as an opponent. The previous NHL defenseman laughed when saying his household already shall be in Toronto this week to attend a marriage.
The groups evenly break up their four-game season collection, with three of the video games determined by one aim and two in time beyond regulation. They final met Saturday, when Boston clinched its playoff berth with a 4-3 win on Kaleigh Fratkin’s aim with 80 seconds left in regulation.
Boston scored the fewest objectives within the league with 50 and was led by Switzerland nationwide group star Alina Muller, who had 4 objectives and a team-best 16 factors. The group was bolstered by midseason commerce additions in Susanna Tapani of Finland and Lexie Adzija, who crammed Boston’s wants down the center.
Whereas Knight had a middling season, ending with six objectives and 11 factors, U.S. nationwide group defenseman Megan Keller was a two-way pressure in ending second on the group with 15 factors (4 objectives, 11 assists) and 9-plus score.
The goalie matchup pits two nationwide group starters in American Aerin Frankel for Boston and Canadian Ann-Renee Desbiens for Montreal.
Second-place Montreal is led by Poulin, who completed tied for second within the factors race with 10 objectives and 13 assists regardless of lacking three video games with a lower-body harm. The group’s core is rounded out by Laura Stacey, who’s engaged to Poulin, and Erin Ambrose, who completed second amongst PWHL defensemen with 18 factors (4 objectives, 14 assists).
Behind the bench are two of the league’s three feminine coaches, Montreal’s Cheverie and Boston’s Courtney Kessel. The 2 additionally function Workforce Canada assistants below Ryan.
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AP Girls’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
(This story has not been edited by News18 workers and is printed from a syndicated information company feed – Related Press)
