PWHL Toronto will choose their first round playoff opponent. They'll need to select either Minnesota or Boston. Here's a look at their options.
PWHL Toronto will do what no other team in professional sports has ever done, they will choose their semi final opponent.
With the final horn sounding after Toronto’s 5-2 win over Ottawa Sunday night, Toronto is now on the clock and have 24 hours to choose their opponent.
Who is it going to be? Minnesota or Boston?
PWHL Boston
To say that Boston had to fight their way in would be an understatement. After looking like a long shot heading into the international break, Boston came out with a hunger that led them to a 4-0-1 record heading into the playoffs.
A big part of that success is Alina Muller and Hilary Knight finally clicking offensively. Over the five game stretch Knight and Müller combined for 6 points including 4 of the teams 10 goals over that period of time.
Despite this resurgence, over the course of the full 24 game season the team has struggled to produce offensively whether on the power play or at even strength.
In the regular season Boston scored the least goals in the PWHL with 50, averaging 2.08 goals per game. Meanwhile on the power play they have also been the worst in the league with a lowly 7.5% success rate with the advantage.
The one thing Boston has that is an advantage is Aerin Frankel. In her first PWHL season, Frankel led all qualifying goalies (12 or more games) in the regular season in save percentage with a .929 and sat second in goals against with a 2.00, only beaten by Toronto’s Kristen Campbell.
If Boston were to continue to get high quality goaltending and scoring from their top six, they will be a tough team to beat in these playoffs.
PWHL Minnesota
Heading into the playoffs Minnesota has been playing their worst hockey of the season. Between the months of April and May the team from the state of hockey has produced a 0-5-0 record with their last win being a 3-2 shootout win over Montreal on March 24.
Despite the poor record, Minnesota is not a team to underestimate. This in due part is because of the likes of Grace Zumwinkle who was Minnesota’s leader in points with 19 this season.
The rookie is joined by a cast of veterans in Kelly Pannek and Kendall Coyne Schofield who have played solid two-way games. During the regular season both scored 16 points as well as lead in +/- at 12 and 11 respectively.
In the crease, Minnesota had one of the best duos in the league in Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley. Surprisingly their two star goalies have not performed well against Toronto posting a combined .900 save percentage in their four games. Hensley is the likely starter for Minnesota despite two games in which she allowed four goals against in net versus Toronto.
What could scare Toronto most about this team is the sleeping beast of Taylor Heise. Her PWHL career certainly has not gotten off to the start she would have wanted, only scoring four goals this season with a total of 13 points in 19 games. That being said, Heise has been a Toronto killer scoring four points in her three matchups against Troy Ryan’s team.
Minnesota overall as a team plays a very stingy defensive game 5-on-5 as they have allowed the second fewest goals in the league with 54.
Where this team struggles is with their special teams. Minnesota has had the worst penalty kill in the league this year at 67.2% while the power play has only scored 8.7% of the time.
Who will Toronto pick?
Boston seems like the best match up for Toronto, but it may not matter all that much, that’s how good Toronto is.
In saying that, the reason you pick Boston is because despite having momentum, Boston statistically is an outlier from the other three teams. They are the only team with a negative goal differential with a -7 and are bottom two in the league in both penalty kill and power play percentage.
On top of this, Boston does not have the depth that Minnesota does offensively, as they will have to rely on Müller and Knight to score goals, two players that Toronto has been able to shut down this season.