Hot hand? For PWHL Boston's Taylor Wenczkowski and Hannah Brandt it was a "hot stick" as both players scored using the same stick less than two and a half minutes apart.
Hot hand? For PWHL Boston's Taylor Wenczkowski and Hannah Brandt it was a "hot stick" as both players scored using the same stick less than two and a half minutes apart.
We've heard about players having the "hot hand," but for PWHL Boston in their 4-3 win over Minnesota to open the PWHL's Walter Cup finals, it wasn't the hot hand, it was the "hot stick."
After Taylor Wenczkowski lost her stick on the ice in the second period, teammate Hannah Brandt handed hers over the boards to Wenczkowski, who ended up scoring with the stick.
Less than two and half minutes later, on Hannah Brandt's next shift on the ice with her stick back in her hands, Brandt scored her own goal for Boston, using the same stick.
"I knew she was a righty so I threw mine out and I was like 'this is going to be hilarious if she scores with this" and she did," said Brandt in the post game press conference.
"And then the next shift I think is when I scored with it, so that's a hot stick."
For Boston who struggled to score for much of the PWHL season, having anyone with the hot hand, or a hot stick that can be passed from teammate to teammate was a pleasant surprise.
Boston struggled so mightily in the scoring department this season, that their 4-3 win over Minnesota to open the finals was only the third time this year, regular season or playoffs, that Boston has scored four goals.
In the opening round they beat Montreal 2-1, 2-1, and 3-2.
Boston was last overall in the PWHL this season in goals for scoring only 50. Even last place New York (53) and fifth place Ottawa (62) score more.
As Brandt joked, the new "hot stick" won't be going far.
"I'm going to start the game with that one," she said about game two of the series.
Game two of Minnesota and Boston's best-of-five PWHL final series comes Tuesday, May 21 at 7:00pm at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, MA.