On March 3, the Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) had a matinee contest between Minnesota and New York. This time, Minnesota came away with a 2-0 win led by netminder Maddie Rooney’s shutout, ending a three-game losing streak. With Minnesota sitting at 8-4-3 after this victory and New York falling to 6-6-2, this was a big game for both sides. What were some takeaways?
Minnesota Gets Much-Needed Win
After losing their last three games and only getting a single point in that span, things were looking pretty dire for Minnesota. Without star center Taylor Heise in each of those games, she returned for this one in a much different situation than where she left — her club went from first place to third in the standings in a matter of a few contests. They needed this one and got it.
Four of the six teams in the PWHL make the playoffs, but the race is going to be tight. Only Boston has more than 10 games remaining on their schedule, so it’s crunch time. Before this one, the lowest team in the standings was Ottawa at 16 points, just six behind Minnesota. A few more losses could have taken Minnesota out of the playoff race entirely.
Since regulation wins are worth three points in the PWHL, every game is huge. The difference between a win and a loss is magnified versus other professional hockey leagues around the world. Every contest matters more, and turnarounds are more apparent. Perhaps this is it for Minnesota.
New York Needs to Turn it Around
While all is good for Minnesota right now with them sitting in second place in the PWHL standings, things are not so good for New York. They are tied with Ottawa with just 16 points through 14 games played, but still a regulation win away from taking over a playoff spot. Things aren’t all bad, but the wins will have to come soon. Now with over half the season played, New York cannot afford to go on a skid. For the exact same reasons why this win was so big for Minnesota, more losses might take away New York’s chances of playing in the postseason.
Minnesota is usually in some pretty tight games, but this one never felt like it. New York actually did a pretty good job of limiting how well Minnesota played, as it felt relatively even for most of the game. But there was no third-period push after Minnesota took a 2-0 lead after two.
Something Minnesota has tended to struggle with a bit is closing out games. It’s not that they give up leads often, but they give up a good amount of chances late and rely heavily on their goaltender to do so. But there really wasn’t any of that here. Minnesota finally had a complete effort. That says a lot about how well they played, but that doesn’t suggest New York was all that great. If they are a playoff team, they’ll need to play teams like Minnesota more tightly.
Rooney Has an Excellent Effort
In the net, Rooney, Minnesota’s backup, was great. She didn’t have the toughest game with many high-quality looks against her, but getting a shutout isn’t necessarily the easiest thing to do — she had to be sharp to do so. With 29 saves on 29 shots, her afternoon was anything but easy.
Rooney has shown that she’s a capable netminder this season — this really wasn’t out of the norm for her. One of Minnesota’s biggest strengths all season long has been their play in goal, and that was shown again. But what isn’t always great is their defense. They do play well, but they give up a good amount of high-danger shots. When the goaltending plays as well as it does, those sorts of chances get overlooked.
In this one, though, the defense was exceptional. Instead of giving up several high-quality looks, Rooney’s day was made a bit easier with their help. If they can play like that more often, they won’t need to score many goals at all. Two- and three-goal efforts will cruise them to wins if the defense and goaltending combine for an effort like this regularly.
Related: Get to Know the 2024 PWHL Minnesota Players
Next up, Minnesota will travel back to their home ice at Xcel Energy Center on March 5 to take on Ottawa. For New York, they’ll have a tough matchup on their home ice on March 6 as they take on Montreal, who leads the PWHL in points. There’s a lot on the line for both teams in these games, as regulation wins for both clubs would put Minnesota back in first place in the PWHL and New York in a playoff spot for the time being.
