Minnesota showed a lot of offensive ability, but had highs and lows in their PWHL Preseason Camp. As head coach Charlie Burggraf said, he felt his team made progress.
Minnesota showed a lot of offensive ability, but had highs and lows in their PWHL Preseason Camp. As head coach Charlie Burggraf said, he felt his team made progress.
In their opening game of the PWHL Preseason Camp, Minnesota fell behind 3-1 to Ottawa. During their second game, the team fell behind 3-0 to Toronto.
Both of those games however, ended in Minnesota wins. As did Minnesota's third game of the Camp, a 4-3 win over Montreal in which they never trailed.
According to head coach Charlie Burggraf, he feels his team made progress from the first game onward.
"We say that offense starts with good defense, because that's where you get the puck," Burggraf said after Minnesota's second game win over Toronto.
"We're working on defense quite a bit and we've gotten a lot better because a lot of the players are offense minded," said Burggraf. "They come to the program being a star players, and sometimes there's not shortcomings, but there's areas that need to improve at this level."
Minnesota's roster at the PWHL Preseason Camp included six players coming directly from NCAA, and several others who were professional rookies last year in the PWHPA, PHF, and Europe. As everyone has seen, none of those prior iterations hold a candle in calibre to the new PWHL.
Minnesota is set to open their inaugural PWHL season Wednesday, January 3 on the road in Lowell, Massachusetts against PWHL Boston.