It all started hunky-dory for PWHL Montreal, they were first on the puck, they scored in the first period, and they even got an insurance goal in the second. It looked like they had overcome their fear of the “Green Monster”. No, not Fenway Park, something much more frightening even though smaller, Aerin Frankel, Boston and Team USA’s starting netminder. Saying Frankel stole this series wouldn’t be right, she was amazing, but she wasn’t the only one to be on Boston’s side. There are many reasons why Boston was able to sweep Montreal, and here are three takeaways from this series.
Issues Have to Be Solved Before the Playoffs
All season long, Montreal has struggled to play with a lead, almost as if as soon as they were ahead by a couple of goals, they felt like it was a done deal. But it never was, not until the final buzzer had rung. It could also have been nerves, mind you, or the fear of making a costly mistake which would allow the opponent to get back into the game. Whatever it was, it wasn’t identified and sorted out before the playoffs and in the end, it proved costly last night and was Montreal’s downfall.
Related: PWHL Montreal’s Dramatic Wins Highlights Recuring Issues
After the game against Minnesota on April 18, captain Marie-Philip Poulin was asked about her team’s tendency to blow a lead and she replied:
“Our second [period] is always something we’ve got to manage. I think that’s something we’ve got to be aware of, obviously, for the last four games of the season, making sure we come out hard. They’ve got a great team, every team is going to play hard. Being down 3-2 in the third, like KO [Kristin O’Neil] said, we flipped the switch, we know when it’s time to put in the work. Obviously, you do want to do that for 60 minutes, but hockey is such a momentum game. And just finding ways to do the little details right, in the end, we did and, obviously, our power play clicked today. That six-on-five was huge, and we’ll go from there.”
I found that answer worrying back then, to me it rang an alarm bell, a warning that it would end badly. Hockey is an intense sport in which you must play 60 minutes or more, as was the case in every game of this series. The switch has got to be flipped on right from the start, not once you’re staring at a loss that’s minutes away.
Great Individuals Don’t Necessarily Make a Great Team
There’s a reason why there are four forward lines and three pairs of blue liners in this sport. Unlike say, football or American football, for instance, hockey requires a constant, non-stop effort. It’s not like you get to walk around on the ice like football players can do on the pitch, and that’s why shifts are short. You give it your all for a short time, and then you come to rest on the bench. Enter the replacements that allow you to catch your breath and recuperate for a few minutes before it’s your turn to jump back on the ice. When you’re not using your full bench, shifts tend to come much faster and athletes will tire out if they are overused.
Head coach Kori Cheverie severely cut her bench in this series, using two or three lines and two pairs of defensemen. I get it, your top-six players are a cut, or a few cuts above the rest, but your best players won’t be able to perform as well as they normally do if they are out there at all times. Montreal’s five Team Canada players always seemed to be on the ice. Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Kristin O’Neil, Erin Ambrose and Ann-Renee Desbiens were always there. If there had been six of them (I do not include Melodie Daoust as she doesn’t play for Team Canada anymore), I would have thought I was looking at a table hockey game where the players are condemned to forever stay in their lane skating back and forth.
The overuse of her top players cost Cheverie the first two games of the series at home. Down 2-0, she seemed to want to adjust somewhat last night in Boston, but it wasn’t the best timing. Montreal didn’t have last change as they were the visitors and Boston’s head coach Courtney Kessel knew it too well.
All series long, Kessel used her whole bench like any coach would. Of course, her fourth line didn’t see much action, but it didn’t just spend seconds on the ice either. As the matches went on, Montreal’s best players were slowly but surely being run into the ground and Boston was able to win all three games in overtime; Cheverie’s players were gassed. Coaching matters and, it was never as obvious as it was in this series. Kessel coached a team while Cheverie coached a starting six.
Confidence Is Key
All season long, Desbiens looked shaky in net at times. Not for whole games, but she had the annoying habit of making one mistake per game. Often, it was when she left her net to handle the puck, in other occasions, her positioning was off. I don’t know what caused it, maybe just like her coach, she doesn’t entirely trust her blueliners and tries to overdo it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t there in Game 2. She was solid and looked as confident as could be, like a fortified wall protecting the net. The two goals she surrendered in that game were not her fault, but last night, there shouldn’t have been space where Sophie Shirley managed to thread the needle to give Boston some life in the third.
From that point on, panic set in as Montreal crumbled under the pressure of protecting a lead. Meanwhile, at the other end of the ice, Frankel gave her team another dose of confidence, stopping Daoust on a breakaway in the third. She had also stopped Poulin on a two-on-one with Daoust in the first period. If Poulin is “Captain Clutch”, Frankel is certainly the clutch goalie in these playoffs. With its third consecutive win, Boston gets its ticket to the Walter Cup Final, becoming the first finalist. They’ll be resting and studying the rest of the Toronto vs Minnesota series, as that’s the sweeper’s privilege.