Minnesota plays Boston Wednesday night with both teams possessing elite offenses and should produce fireworks for the Beantown faithful
The PWHL has officially arrived with back-to-back sold out crowds in Toronto and Ottawa to start the league's inaugural season. The league’s third ever game sees the puck drop in one of America’s biggest hockey hotbeds in Boston. The game will see Women’s hockey royalty with Minnesota’s Kendall Coyne taking on the current betting-favorite to take home the Championship in Boston.
If you are looking to get in on the PWHL action and enhance your viewing experience of this history in the making. Here is our best bets for Wednesday night’s game. All betting odds listed are from Bet365 and are subject to change.
Müller, Knight to headline Boston’s scoring plan
The third overall pick in the PWHL Draft was Swiss forward Alina Müller, who could grow into being one of the best young players in the league for Boston. The Lengnau native dominated with the Zurich Lions at an early age, before coming to North America and attending the University of Northeastern, where she was again dominant with 27 goals and 60 points in 38 games, which placed her fourth in the country in total points.
Not to mention, she will possibly be paired up with arguably one of the best Women’s hockey players in the world in American forward Hilary Knight. The Women’s hockey legend is known for her star-studded hockey career and trophy case with nine World Championship gold medals and one Olympic gold at the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics. She’s still got it at age 34, placing third in total points at the 2023 Women’s World Championships with eight goals and 12 points and helping Team USA win their ninth gold medal in the last 12 World Championships.
Boston also have other offensive weapons like Canadians Jamie Lee Rattray, Loren Gabel and Sophie Shirley, who all could step in and benefit from playing with Müller or Knight.
Minnesota fights fire with fire
Minnesota was lucky enough to receive the first overall pick in the PWHL draft, where they took Minnesota Golden Gopher Taylor Heise. The 23-year-old has been lethal at the collegiate level and will look to continue her stellar play at the pro level. She led the country in total points with 66 and placed second in goals with 29 in 39 games during the 2021-22 NCAA season and followed it up the following season with another 29 goals which led the country and placing second in total points with 65 in 38 games.
Heise will also be joined by her former Golden Gopher teammate Grace Zumwinkle, who was also impressive at the NCAA level with the third-most points in the 2022-23 season behind Heise, with 61 points with 25 being goals in 38 games.
The dynamic duo should play with great chemistry and should give Minnesota quite a lethal offense as their firepower doesn't stop there. They used six of their first ten picks on forwards with the remaining four being the Finnish Susanna Tapani, Americans Clair DeGeorge and Sophia Shaver and Czechia’s Denisa Krizová.
Best Bets: Over 5.5 goals (-140), Minnesota +1.5 (-200)
In a game, where Boston has the big names in Müller and Knight, Minnesota should hold their own and help produce fireworks with most of the effort coming from the top six. Minnesota will also hold a slight advantage in between the pipes with their netminder Nicole Hensley, who they picked in the second round and as the first goalie off the board.
She played for Team Sonnet in last year’s PWHPA, where she started 13 games and held opponents to a 2.57 goals against average and a .921 save percentage. She could be a difference-maker in this one, which makes Minnesota on the spread another great pick.