PWHL Boston is resting and recuperating after two marathon overtime games. According to head coach Courtney Kessel and netminder Aerin Frankel, they're relying on their depth, and are focusing on their recovery heading into a potentially deciding game three.
PWHL Boston is resting and recuperating after two marathon overtime games. According to head coach Courtney Kessel and netminder Aerin Frankel, they're relying on their depth, and are focusing on their recovery heading into a potentially deciding game three.
PWHL Boston is tired.
Coming off two consecutive marathons that called for two sets of overtimes—including triple overtime in Game 2—Boston’s players are feeling it in their legs.
“Our biggest thing since winning in overtime has been rest,” said Boston head coach Courtney Kessel. “Whatever that looks like for each player. Rest, recovery, just kind of shake those legs off.
“Physically, you get a little tired, but I feel like we’ve been preparing for this all year,” said Hannah Brandt. “The legs just kind of keep going.”
Just ask Aerin Frankel, who stopped a whopping 109 shots over Boston’s first two games in their opening-round series with Montreal.
“You can see every player is putting everything they have on the line,” Frankel said. “Obviously, there’s a little bit of a rivalry that has built over the course of the year between us and Montreal. I think it goes to show that no one is going to give the other team an inch. We both want it so badly.”
But after two full days removed from their triple overtime thriller in Montreal on Saturday, Boston is returning to the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts. A place that PWHL Boston can now confidently call home.
“We’ve played there enough that it does feel like home,” Kessel said. “I think it’s hard to settle in when you don’t practice there, but we have lots of games under our belt there, and we’ve built this fan base. It’s gotten bigger and bigger since game one.
“The first game, there’s people in the seats. But they’re there because we’re a new professional women’s team. They are excited, but they are a little (hesitant). Now they’re fans.”
The perfect storm for a series-clinching scenario. Boston may be feeling the effects of their two-game gauntlet over the border, but the opportunity to advance to the PWHL Finals on home ice is the remedy for any woes.
“They’re cheering for Boston, and you hear them cheering for Boston,” Kessel continued. “You’re not hearing Montreal, and you’re not getting booed. I think that definitely makes a big difference, but the fans have done a tremendous job at jumping on board with us being a new professional team in Boston.”
Still, Montreal will be fighting for their playoff lives. For Frankel, it’s all about taking each shot one period at a time.
“You can look at it as a five-game series, or you can take it period by period,” Frankel said. “I think that’s what’s helped me stay focused, just kind of thinking of each period as a small game.”
And for Kessel, the Boston bench boss understands it will require a full effort up and down the lineup to achieve the ultimate goal this season. Unlike Montreal—who had a wide disparity in time on ice on Saturday—Kessel is utilizing her full roster in an attempt to conclude the sweep on Tuesday.
“If you rely on your top two lines, I don’t think you’re going to win a championship,” said the coach. “I don’t think you’ve ever seen an NHL team win a Stanley Cup only playing two lines. The teams that win Stanley Cups, it comes from their depth. I think we saw that from our team.”