March in Minnesota typically means at least one big snowstorm; this time, there were two within three days. The latter of the two storms fell while PWHL Minnesota hosted PWHL Montréal on Sunday afternoon, March 24, where they also celebrated the Special Olympics during game festivities. It was the final game for both teams before the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s (PWHL) break for the Women’s World Championship.
The snow didn’t scare away the 7,268 fans, and the building was loud and proud of PWHL Minnesota. However, PWHL Montréal had the jump early, scoring back-to-back goals, and PWHL Minnesota struggled to put anything together. A few minutes after the second PWHL Montréal goal, PWHL Minnesota found their groove and started peppering the opposing goaltender with shot after shot. However, Elaine Chuli stood tall in the net and held PWHL Minnesota in for the rest of the period.
In the second period, the game took a 180-degree turn in PWHL Minnesota’s direction, and they started to control play. They continued to shoot and were rewarded with back-to-back goals to tie it. They had what they thought was their third goal, but it was waved off due to a high stick. The momentum stayed with PWHL Minnesota, but they could not add any more goals before the period ended.
Both teams had strong chances in the third period, but both goaltenders stepped up their play and stopped every puck. The period ended tied, and overtime was needed, but even that wasn’t enough to produce a goal, so to a shootout, it went. It seemed like the shootout would also be scoreless, but in the third round, PWHL Minnesota scored a goal, but PWHL Montréal followed with a goal of their own. Fast-forward a few rounds, and PWHL Minnesota came out with the win 3-2 and a big two points in the playoff race. It didn’t start great for PWHL Minnesota, but they never gave up, and that’s where we’ll begin.
PWHL Minnesota Never Gives Up
PWHL Montréal got the early advantage with two quick goals, and things didn’t look great for PWHL Minnesota. It easily could’ve been a win for PWHL Montréal if PWHL Minnesota couldn’t find a spark, and although it took a little bit, PWHL Minnesota did find that spark. The game started to swing in their favor even if the goals didn’t go in immediately.
They dug deep and kept pushing until they finally scored a goal. The second one came right after the first, bringing them from two goals down to tied, and that swung the momentum their way fully. They added what they thought was their third goal to take the lead, but as stated above, it was waved off due to a high stick. Regardless, they kept with it and eventually won because they didn’t give up.
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“We’re a resilient group, and you know we’ve been down in those situations before, like literally five minutes in just like today was, and we didn’t really need to say anything; you have a few people saying like ‘let’s go’ whatever but after five minutes we just sit in the huddle, you don’t really have to say much, we know you literally have the whole game left which feels like three hours so you know you have time to work with what we’ve got. Every line came out firing today, no matter if you make a mistake or you do something good, you come out the next shift, and you kind of just figure it out,” said Taylor Heise in the postgame press conference about having to come back from being down.
PWHL Minnesota Power Play Still Struggling
While PWHL Minnesota’s overall five-on-five game was great, their power play is still having issues scoring goals. On some power plays, they get a lot of shots on goal but can’t get them past the goaltender, or on the next man advantage, they pass too much and don’t get a shot on goal. They need to find a way to consistently shoot the puck more precisely. It’s great to get plenty of shots, but they need to go past the goaltender.
They have the right players on their power play units, but the problem is finding a way to play the same consistently. When they return from their three-week break, hopefully, they’ll have a refreshed game and be successful on the power play as they head towards the postseason.
In a pre-game interview, general manager Natalie Darwitz talked about how important their special teams will be going into the postseason: “If I look back and really dissect some points that we’ve missed, I want to say that our special teams need to be a whole lot better. I think our power play might be the worst in the league… and that’s just not a stat that you can go into playoffs feeling good about just winning off the five-on-five play.”
PWHL Minnesota Getting Offense
Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle stole the show in the shootout with their highlight reel moves, but they weren’t the only ones who scored. PWHL Minnesota’s offense came from other areas of their lineup, including their defense. Both of their regulation goals were courtesy of their defensemen, with the first going to Natalie Buchbinder and the second going to Lee Stecklein.
Many teams struggle to distribute offense throughout their lineup, so PWHL Minnesota has that to its advantage and will hopefully keep it going as the season progresses. This wasn’t the first game they’ve had others contribute, either; it’s been happening for quite a while now, and they’ll need it going into the postseason.
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“I think it was good; I think it was kind of a pivotal thing for us where we kind of solidified that we’re going to be a tough team to contend with because we have multiple weapons, we have multiple players that can contribute on every game, every night. Different players are scoring goals, some games the D are scoring goals like today and other games we got forwards, Cava had a couple, and Denisa had a couple,” said head coach Ken Klee in the postgame press conference.
PWHL Minnesota Off
After Monday, March 25, the PWHL will officially be on a three-week break for the Women’s World Championship, as mentioned above. While PWHL Minnesota has six players going, the rest will continue to train and practice to stay ready when their teammates return.
In their postgame press conference, Klee talked a little about the break and how it’ll affect them. “It’s unique, the commentators of the game were asking me before, and it’s a unique situation; it’s not something we can really prepare for because six of our players could come back extremely tired. That’s a lot of hockey games they’re playing, and they’re obviously six really important players for us, but as far as the rest of the group it’s about mixing it up, some days we do skills days, some days we do competition days, some days we do scoring days…”
It’s going to be difficult to manage missing their players while still practicing, but they’ll have to find a way to make it work. Hopefully, everyone will come back healthy, and they can pick up where they left off before the break.
