Uncharacteristic mistakes kept Minnesota from clinching a playoff spot as they were shutout by PWHL Ottawa.
A pair of end-board blunders sunk PWHL Minnesota Saturday night against Ottawa, losing their second consecutive contest in regulation 4-0.
Brianne Jenner tallied three goals, and Emerance Maschmeyer shut down Minnesota's offense with 35 saves, helping Ottawa leapfrog Boston for fourth place in the PWHL standings.
Jenner opened the scoring with 2:46 remaining in the first period.
"It's unfortunate for us," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said. "Obviously, it was a big lift for them. The shots were eight-zero at the time or something. They looked like a team that hadn't played in three weeks, and I thought we looked the fresher team because we got to play a couple of days ago."
Jenner added another goal early in the second, and Ashton Bell buried a cross-crease feed from Tereza Vanišová late in the middle frame to put the home team up 3-0 before the second intermission.
Jenner capped off the game by notching her third with 4:21 remaining in the final period.
Maschmeyer Stands Tall
The first period saw waves of chances from Minnesota's offense, each of which Maschmeyer turned aside. Whether it was Kelly Pannek's chip pass to spring Denisa Křížová for a breakaway or Sophie Jaques charging toward the net before a slick handoff to Kendall Coyne Schofield, Ottawa's netminder set the tone early by stopping each of Minnesota's ten opening frame shots.
She continued her dominant play in the second, shutting down multiple power play opportunities, gobbling up slot shots and snagging the puck to stop play when Ottawa's defense was under siege.
"Their goaltender played really well," Coyne Schofield said. "We had our chances and didn't capitalize on them when we did."
Maschmeyer fended off Minnesota's third-period push, saw hats fall at the other end of the ice following Jenner's hat trick marker and earned her second shutout of the season.
Uncharacteristic Mistakes
Ottawa capitalized on a quartet of Minnesota mistakes that sunk the State of Hockey's chances to clinch a playoff berth.
Jenner's first goal saw Hensley go behind the net to play the puck. However, the puck bounced off the end boards directly to Jenner, who was net-front for an easy tap-in. Her second goal saw another endboard mistake, this time at the hands of Maggie Flaherty.
Flaherty blew a tire attempting to corral the puck and crashed into the boards. Emily Clark scooped up the puck and fed Jenner in the slot for a quick one-timer to put Ottawa up 2-0 four minutes into the middle frame.
Later in the period, Coyne Schofield tried to pass out to the point as a Minnesota power play expired. The puck missed its intended target, bounced off the boards and landed on Vanišová's stick. She rushed up the ice and hit Bell for her second of the season.
Finally, Vanišová pick-pocketed Lee Stecklein in Minnesota's defensive zone, eventually leading to Jenner's third goal.
Minnesota had more shots and quality chances, but Ottawa's opportunistic playstyle pounced on anything that came their way.
Failure to Capitalize
Minnesota had their share of power plays Saturday night. Unfortunately for them, their special team woes persisted.
"We're getting a lot of pucks to the net again. We're getting chances, just not finishing," Klee said. "For us, it's just, keep moving the puck, keep, you know, one-timing when we can, get pucks on the net, traffic and hopefully, we can put a couple in."
Ottawa took five penalties, including coughing up a five-on-three opportunity for Minnesota, but its sub-10% player advantage continued to struggle.
Minnesota will host Boston on April 27 at the Xcel Energy Center with another opportunity to clinch a spot in the Walter Cup Playoffs. Puck drop is at 1:00 p.m. CT, 2:00 p.m. ET.
"Boston's our next opponent," Coyne Schofield said. "We [will] do what we need to do to get better from, you know, these last two losses and prepare for that game."
*Files from Alex Adams of The Hockey News