PWHL Boston benefited like no other team in the league from the month pause for the PWHL. Now they're ready for a playoff "battle."

Heading into the World Championship break, PWHL Boston's season looked like it would soon be coming to an end. Following the break, Boston was the hottest team in the PWHL winning four of five games in regulation, and losing their fifth in a shootout. 

The streak helped them leap frog Ottawa and Minnesota and earn the third seed heading into the PWHL playoffs. It's probably a streak that also caused PWHL Toronto to selected Minnesota as their opening round opponent leaving Boston to face second place Montreal. 

"I don't think it matters who we were going to go up against, I think we're excited to get going and we know it's going to be a battle," said head coach Courtney Kessel.

For Boston, things just weren't clicking heading into the World Championships, but the month long reset helped their roster more than any team in the league, and it's a point they're acutely aware of.

"We had a great ending, we came on hot after Worlds," said Kessel. "This is playoff hockey and anything can happen, I think we need to continue our momentum that's just playing the way we play....I think, you know, the break obviously did help us, I feel like it just helped us regroup a little bit and I think we saw that in our last five games there."

It was a sentiment echoed by captain Hilary Knight, who saw her own game pick up after the World Championships following a slow first 19 games.

"We've had an awesome stretch here since that month break and it's just a testament to the type of people we have in the room and I wouldn't want to go to battle with any other group."

Boston drops the puck on their PWHL playoff semi-final against Montreal on Thursday, May 9 at 7pm ET at Place Bell in Laval, Quebec.