SAINT PAUL, Minn. — Taylor Heise was picking herself up from Boston’s crease, with a massive grin on her face, her arms in the air, heading over to hug her teammates, including Sophie Jaques, who’d just scored in double overtime to give what their team thought was an historic win and a first-ever PWHL championship.
The 13,104 fans at the Xcel Energy Center were on their feet, and Minnesota sticks and gloves were all over the ice, in classic hockey championship celebration fashion.
This one didn’t last, though.
The league-initiated review of the play came soon after, and then the overturned call was announced on ice, since PWHL officials determined Heise went into Boston’s goalie, Aerin Frankel, “on her own volition, resulting in the goalie being unable to play her position” and then properly defend Jaques’ shot.
And just like that, Game 4 of the PWHL Finals was underway again.
On Sunday night, after 98 minutes and 36 seconds of hockey, less than two minutes after Minnesota thought they’d won it all, Boston forward Alina Müller changed the script, keeping her team’s season alive to force a fifth and deciding game in the PWHL Finals.
Müller fought off a defender and wired a wrist shot into the top corner, glove side, to give Boston the 1-0 double-overtime win.
“I’m not surprised,” Boston head coach Courtney Kessel said, of Müller potting the winner. “She’s just a tremendous 200-foot hockey player that can put the puck in the back of the net. We’ve been waiting for it all year and I know it’s there and I’ve been telling her that it’s there.” And Sunday, it was there.
Frankel was again sensational between the pipes, with 33 saves for the win.
“She’s the best goalie in this league, in the world,” Müller said. “I trust her so much. She makes it so much fun in practice, trying to shoot on her, the competitiveness, the fitness — just everything is elite.”
In overtime, Frankel stood on her head to keep her team in it, with clutch glove saves on Kendall Coyne Schofield and Jaques, and a huge pad save when Grace Zumwinkle was on a partial breakaway. In double overtime, Zumwinkle had another chance after a beautiful pass in close from Denisa Křížová, and once again Frankel closed the door.
“She’s the Green Monster — tremendous,” Kessel said, speaking to her goaltender’s key role in the team’s resiliency. “I think it starts with goaltending and it starts with Franks, and just her ability to stay calm through these ups and downs, her ability to keep us in games and win games for us.”
Frankel wasn’t sure if the game had actually ended a minute or so before her team scored the actual winner.
“I mean, obviously being in the net, I didn’t really know what happened, other than the fact that I was pushed, but I didn’t know who pushed me into the net, it kind of just all happened really fast,” the goaltender said. “Then after seeing the replay, I was confident they would maybe overturn it. And obviously it’s tough being in their rink in double overtime, so I’m glad that they made the right call.”
“I had no doubt that it was goaltender interference,” added Müller. “And that’s tough to get a goal overturned, I mean the momentum is for the other team, for sure — for us.”
“I think right away, we just kind of hit the reset,” Frankel added. “And we’ve been in overtime so much already this year. And I think we just stuck to the systems that have been working for us this year.”
The series, now tied 2-2, heads back to Lowell, Mass. for the decisive Game 5 on Wednesday.
Minnesota players gathered at centre ice at the end of the game and thanked their fans, and then they all got together and exchanged some words before skating off the ice.
“Obviously we wish we got a different result for them, but just so much credit and love for our fans here in the State of Hockey — it was an awesome, awesome atmosphere,” Coyne Schofield said. “I think the message is to learn from it and turn the page, and be ready to go come Wednesday night and, you know, do what you need to do.”
Minnesota thought they’d done what the needed to do, earlier Sunday.
“It’s tough to tell if it was from (the) Boston’s player’s stick or if she just loses an edge,” Minnesota coach Ken Klee said of Heise’s fall on the overturned goal. “Obviously that one hurt, going through a big high, the confetti’s going, the gloves are coming off, then you gotta refocus real quick. But we get to play another game, so we’re going to regroup after this one — it hurt, but we’re gonna get back to work.”
Coyne Schofield said that was the message in the locker room, after the game.
“There’s no secrets. Everyone’s tired. We’ve played a lot of hockey, I think more hockey than a lot of us are used to in this inaugural season. And I think it’s important to recognize that we did a lot of great things tonight, a bounce here or a bounce there, we may be having a different conversation right now, for sure,” the captain said.
“But it’s being able to turn the page and recognizing the last one to win is the hardest one.”
And in this inaugural PWHL season, it’s coming down to the very last one.
