The inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) season is now down to just two clubs. Boston and Minnesota, the third and fourth seeds of the PWHL playoffs, are the only ones left standing. They will face one another in the Walter Cup Final.
How exactly did our two finalists get to this point? What might a path to a championship look like for each of them?
Minnesota’s Rise, Fall, & Rise
Minnesota has seen a lot of ups and downs in 2024. For a little while, they seemed like they’d be the top seed in the league, boasting a 4-0-1 record through their first five contests. After that point, they went 8-9-2 and finished the regular season with a measly three-point cushion on a playoff spot.
During the PWHL’s break for the 2024 Women’s World Championship, they had 35 points and were in second place in the league with every team having five games remaining. Then, Minnesota proceeded to do the unthinkable: they lost all five of those contests in regulation. Needing just one regulation win in that time frame to officially clinch the postseason, a season where they never fell below the playoff line could have had disastrous results. Fortunately, the teams below them didn’t take advantage.
Minnesota took that awful momentum into their first-round series with top-seeded Toronto, and it didn’t go so well to start. They dropped both of their first two games on the road without scoring a single goal in the process, meaning they were a loss away from being eliminated. All of a sudden, they got their mojo back and started winning hockey games.
Minnesota got back-to-back shutouts of their own on their home ice, winning Game 4 in double-overtime to force a Game 5. And, of course, they took that contest with a pretty worthwhile effort from both sides. The first pick of the 2023 PWHL Draft, Taylor Heise, came up clutch and scored two goals in her team’s 4-1 win.
Now in the Final, Minnesota is riding some confidence for the first time in a while. Even though Toronto was without star forward Natalie Spooner for their final two contests due to a devastating knee injury, winning three straight against a team of that caliber should still be commended. It should be tough to get them off of their high horse.
Boston Gets Hot at the Right Time
Looking at Boston, they couldn’t have had a more different trajectory. When PWHL action stopped with five games remaining, they were on the opposite end of the spectrum. With 22 points at that time and five behind Ottawa for the last playoff spot, things were looking pretty grim; a switch was flipped.
Boston won four of their last five games in the regular season, claiming the third seed and making the postseason. Until the end of it, they were never thoroughly above the playoff line — things can change pretty fast. Once they did, they rode that momentum into a date with Montreal.
Against Montreal, Boston took care of business in an overtime-only sweep. Even if every game was decided beyond regulation, the fact that Boston was able to win these tight games is inspiring for their odds in the Final. The PWHL is a very competitive league with mostly close games, as there is not a significant talent gap from the top teams to the bottom teams. Getting some overtime experience is really only a good thing.
Related: PWHL Boston Sweeps Montreal: 3 Takeaways From the Series
With wins in seven of their last eight contests, Boston is by far the hottest team in the PWHL. It happened almost out of the blue, but they are the team to beat now. Thanks to Minnesota’s collapse and Boston’s rise when it mattered, they will serve as the hosts for the Final for the first two contests and a Game 5 if it is necessary.
Minnesota at Boston: Who Wins?
Both Minnesota and Boston have strong rosters that appear to be evenly matched. For the former, Heise, Rookie of the Year finalist Grace Zumwinkle, and Sophie Jaques are all 25 years old or younger and are prominent roster players, potentially making them a problem for a while. As for Boston, 26-year-old Alina Müller has lived up to her third-overall selection in the draft and more. Her and 28-year-old defender Megan Keller are two of the best female athletes in the sport of hockey; that dynamic duo could be a difference-maker in the series.
Netminders Maddie Rooney and Aerin Frankel have been lights-out in their past few games, so there will be some significant pressure on both of their shoulders to keep it up. The good news is that they’ve handled the spotlight.
It would be wrong to say one team has supremacy over the other because that just hasn’t been true in the playoffs at all so far. Having a home-ice advantage could come in handy for Boston, but it shouldn’t be a major reason to declare them victors. At best, they have a slight edge. This is set up to be a pretty entertaining series that could go the distance; it begins on Sunday, May 19.
