Even the most creative scriptwriters would have had trouble penning a drama better than this one. In the first-ever season, with a roaring audience on hand, the team that barely sneaked into the playoffs and couldn’t even score a goal in its first two postseason games survived all the way to the end and netted an overtime championship-winner Sunday night in front of 13,000 home fans … until it didn’t.
No goal. Goalie interference, decided on review. With new life, the visiting team wasted no time winning it. Sunday’s final score: 1-0 Boston. And so it all comes down to this: the grand finale, Wednesday night in suburban Boston. Here’s what you need to know:
Championship game: The final game of this best-of-five Walter Cup series is 6 p.m. Central Wednesday night at Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass., just north of Boston.
How to watch: Bally Sports broadcasts PWHL Minnesota games, and all PWHL games are streamed on the league’s YouTube channel.
How’d we get here?: Boston won the first Cup series game at home (Boston is the better seed and has home-ice advantage), Minnesota won two in a row, and Boston won the dramatic Game 4 Sunday night in St. Paul. Before this series, Minnesota eliminated Toronto in the semifinals, despite barely registering a heartbeat in the first two games, both shutout losses. Minnesota was in a nosedive at the end of the regular season, barely making the playoffs. So, yes, quite the turnaround for the team in purple.
That Game 4 sounds nuts: It was. You should read Rachel Blount’s story about the game, and also La Velle E. Neal III’s column about the game. We have a photo gallery attached to those stories that you need to see as well (the angst on those faces!).
Did the refs do Minnesota wrong?: An overtime winner being overturned is always going to bring out the strong opinions. Most of those opining Sunday night, though, seemed to agree with the referees’ decision to overturn the Taylor Heise’s goal. La Velle wrote: “Fans were incredulous when the review was announced, but let’s be clear: Heise interfered with [Boston goalie Aerin] Frankel, and it should have not been a goal.” Video of the no-goal is here.
Who won it? Boston’s Alina Muller zipped the winning goal by Minnesota goalie Nicole Hensley, who was otherwise outstanding Sunday. Video of the goal is here.
Coming this week from the Star Tribune: Rachel Blount soon will be on a flight to Boston and you’ll read at least six stories from her this week as we cover the Walter Cup finale and chronicle the final days of this historic first PWHL season.
Chris Carr
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