Mind the gap isn’t just applicable to the Tube, London’s subway system.
When the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League schedule was put together with a three-week gap spanning March and April to accommodate the Women’s World Championships, teams and fans were mindful of how such a long break would impact the rest of the season.
In the doldrums heading into that break, PWHL Boston was near the bottom of the league with one of the four playoff spots looking like a reach. But that three-week gap transformed its season.
Winning four of its last five regular-season games after the break, Boston lifted itself not only to a playoff spot, but to the third seed. After sweeping Montreal, the second seed, in three games in the semifinal round, Boston is the higher surviving seed and Sunday (5 p.m.) will host No. 4 Minnesota in Game 1 of the best-of-five Walter Cup Finals at Tsongas Center in Lowell.
“We’re itching to get going,” Boston forward Jamie Lee Rattray said Saturday. “I think we have a lot of momentum going into this series.”
The obvious benefit to the three-week break was to get players healthy, but it also created a training camp-like atmosphere. Boston added Lexie Adzija, Nicole Kosta, Caitrin Lonergan, and Kelly Babstock in mid-March, and the break allowed the four to mesh with their new teammates and come up to speed on systems. Though captain Hilary Knight, star goaltender Aerin Frankel, and eventual playoff dynamo Susanna Tapani were away at the World Championships, the majority of the roster still practiced daily at Wellesley’s Boston Sports Institute.
“It was a break,” Boston coach Courtney Kessel said. “It was a mental reset for everyone involved. We brought in some players, like Kelly Babstock and Lexie Adzija, right before break. The energy those two bring off the ice is something really special. I knew we had a special group here and I knew it was going to click at some point.”
Nurturing its depth during the international break turned out to be what gave Boston an advantage over Montreal. In the last game of the regular season, top-liner Rattray was injured. Babstock was inserted in Rattray’s space on that top line and the trio did not miss a beat.
The concentrated practice during break also allowed Kessel and her staff to trust the entirety of the roster, which became a much-talked-about difference between Boston and Montreal. Much was made of the fact that despite all three games in the series going into at least one overtime, Montreal played its third and fourth lines sparingly, while Boston’s entire roster earned significant minutes.
“You just never know,” Kessel said. “We went into the Montreal series without Jamie Lee Rattray, Loren Gabel, and Taylor Girard. If you don’t give [players] the opportunity to grow and to learn, then when those things happen in your season, you are not going to do well. I think it’s important that they all get an opportunity.”
Rattray and Gabel were able to return for the series-winning game, and will have the benefit of five days between games before taking the ice for Sunday’s Game 1. The past few days have also allowed for extra rest for busy Boston goaltender Frankel, who amassed 141 saves, a .972 save percentage, and a 0.97 goals-against average in the semifinal round.
Minnesota comes into the Walter Cup Finals running on adrenaline. Down, 2-0, in its series against top-seeded Toronto, Minnesota won three straight, including Friday’s 4-1 series-clincher, to upset the last Canadian team standing.
Led by former University of Minnesota stalwarts Grace Zumwinkle and Taylor Heise and Northeastern great Kendall Coyne Schofield, Minnesota’s forwards are physical and speedy. Denisa Křižová, also formerly of Northeastern, could cause Boston fits. Her playmaking skills led the Minnesota Whitecaps in a shocking upset over the Boston Pride in last year’s Premier Hockey Federation playoffs. Goalie Maddie Rooney posted two shutouts against Toronto and was key to PWHL Minnesota’s success.
That the league’s first championship series comes down to two teams who backed into the playoffs hasn’t sat well with some, especially Montreal and coach Kori Cheverie.
“I think we probably outplayed them for 10 [out of 13] periods,” Cheverie said after Montreal‘s ouster.
“Good for her” was Kessel’s response.
“Here we are, going to the championship,” Kessel said.
Kat Cornetta can be reached at sportsgirlkat@gmail.com.