In the opening game of the PWHL finals, PWHL Boston found a way to do something Toronto could not in their opening round series...they beat Maddie Rooney.
In the opening game of the PWHL finals, PWHL Boston found a way to do something Toronto could not in their opening round series...they beat Maddie Rooney.
LOWELL, MA — Maddie Rooney was practically unbeatable in Minnseota’s opening-round clash with Toronto.
Rocking a .979 postseason save percentage to Game 1 of the PWHL Finals, Boston was handed a tall task: score on a goaltender who stopped 92 of her last 94 shots.
But maybe the formula for beating Rooney wasn’t as complicated as it seemed. In a thrilling 4-3 win in Game 1 on Sunday, Boston put pucks on net and crashed for rebounds.
That’s it. That’s all it took to score on the unscorable.
Susanna Tapani, Taylor Wenczkowski, Hannah Brandt, and Jess Healey found twine at the Tsongas Center in the 4-3 triumph, overcoming an early 2-1 deficit to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series. Aerin Frankel also continued her dominance between the pipes, making 30 saves.
“I think we’ve seen that all year across the league,” Boston head coach Courtney Kessel said of approaching a hot goalie. “These are tremendous goalies, and you’re going to have to battle and find loose rebounds. It’s not going to be pretty.”
Boston will have an opportunity to take a 2-0 lead to the Xcel Energy Center, with Game 2 slated for Tuesday in Lowell.
But it wasn’t the start Kessel drew up on Sunday evening. Megan Keller committed an interference penalty just ten seconds into the contest, giving Minnesota an initial jolt with a two-minute power play. While the hosts were able to kill it off—allowing one shot on goal—Minnesota didn’t require a player-advantage to open the scoring.
Michela Cava collected a feed from Heise in the offensive zone, wheeling the puck behind the net before stuffing it past Aerin Frankel on the wraparound shortly after the power play expired.
“Killing that was huge in the first seconds of the game,” said Kessel. “Right after that, I thought the momentum was good, and then I really loved our response to them scoring.”
But as Boston has down the stretch of the season, they found a way to answer. It all started with a shot on goal from the point.
Emily Brown fired a wrister on Rooney from inside the blue line, kicking out to Tapani for the tap-in score. Tapani, who was dealt to Boston from Minnesota in February, sought revenge against her former team on the big stage.
However, Taylor Heise wouldn’t let her team go down without a fight. The high-octane forward potted a pair of goals in a five-goal second-period salvo, giving Minnesota some life.
Just over eight minutes into the middle frame, Heise unleashed a laser to the top right corner on a pass from Cava to regain the lead. Heise lit the lamp again later in the period to tie the game at three, sandwiched by a two-goal rally from Boston.
“It’s hard to not be confident when you have players putting the puck on your stick in really prime scoring areas,” said Heise.
Boston again took advantage of a rebound when Wenczkowski banged home a shot from Gigi Marvin at 12:50 before Brandt utilized a net-front screen at 15:11 to knot the game at three.
“Each team did a good job responding from goals against,” said Brandt.
“They got that tying goal, then for Healey to score right after and put is back on top, that was huge for us.”
But just 15 seconds after Heise’s second goal, Boston had an answer—again.
This time, it was Healey, putting an exclamation point on Boston’s strategy to break Rooney. The blueliner tossed a shot toward the goal from the top of the zone, finding its way through a handful of Minnesota defenders before it was in the back of Rooney’s net. It wasn’t pretty, but it got the job done.
“I think they tried to chip it out, and I kept it in and honestly just threw it on net,” said Healey. “I think I got a little lucky, it went off someone’s stick. But I guess it doesn’t matter as long as it makes its way to the net.”
The third period was significantly more tamed after a five-goal flurry in the second frame. While Boston wasn’t able to extend their lead, Frankel had their backs, exercising her will to keep the puck out of her net throughout two Minnesota power plays. Despite an empty-net attempt from Minnesota in the final minute, Frankel stood firm, and the buzzer sounded to give Boston the upper hand in the series.
“In off-ice warmups, me and Aerin were rolling out, and she looked at me and she’s like, ‘I can’t believe we’re in the finals,’ said Healey. “We’ve proved a lot of people wrong and brought ourselves back from the dead. We were in a position where we might not even make the playoffs.”