Written by Laura Everett, Edited by Abbi Holt
LOWELL, MA: Much better.
Everyone in PWHL Boston is feeling much better after Saturday night.
PWHL Boston and PWHL Minnesota last met on Wednesday January 3, 2024 for Boston’s home opener at Tsongas Arena in Lowell. Back then, everything in the league was shiny and new. In the established tradition of underestimating women’s league fans purchasing power, the PHWL hunter green jerseys ran out by the second period of the first game and still aren’t back in stock (though we were told from the merch table staff that they are due in on Monday). It was an exciting experience for all 4,012 fans, that first home game against Minnesota back in early January, but that doesn’t always make for excellent hockey. Boston lost 3-2.
But after this Saturday night, PHWL Minnesota Coach Ken Klee said after the game, “They’re a way better team than what we saw in the first game. And we’re a way better team too. It takes a little time for teams to gel.”
PWHL Boston returned home to Tsongas Arena in Lowell on Saturday January 27, 2024 to a holding steady crowd of 4,059 for what was only their third home game and sixth game overall. With the overtime win, as of this writing, with two games in hand and 10 points, Boston sits in third place in the middle of the table.
It has taken a while for Boston to gel, particularly for Captain Hilary Knight. This game included both her first points, with her first assist and her first goal in the PHWL.
“I’m known for being a goal scorer, so to go with a drought for a while, it doesn’t feel comfortable to me. I’m obviously trying to make an impact in other ways of the game and be a playmaker, play solid d-zone, and tonight I really had to make up for that (last minute) icing. That’s what got us into overtime, so I’m glad we could get on the board and get out with the W on home ice.”
This uncomfortable feeling wasn’t just limited to Knight. The last home game against New York, Coach Kessel spoke of players “gripping their sticks too tight.” But on the road this week, Boston found a decent win against Ottawa.
Before that win, Boston’s recent problems weren’t limited to the ice. The team wasn’t gelling. Maybe something in the road trips helped ease the discomfort. When asked after the game when the team had experienced recent fun, Alina Müller, who now leads the PWHL in scoring with nine points, spoke of hours of delayed flights trying to get back from Canada, foraging for decent food in the airport, endless card games of which no one could remember the names that seemed to bond the team. We also learned that the team DJ is Olympic Gold medalist Jamie Lee Rattray.
But the good vibes off-ice from DJ Ratty didn’t just translate into her assist to Kaleigh Fratkin goal in the first period. The passing was smoother. Players were taking braver shots. This looked like a team that was willing to try things.
Post-game, Knight reflected over the past few weeks for PWHL Boston, saying “We all had a point of reflection. We wanted to be better with our habits in practice. Starting in practice, it’s going to translate well for us during the game. Obviously, details matter. It’s a game about minimizing mistakes. But you go out there and people are going to make mistakes. Knowing that the person on your right and left have your back. This takes a lot of trust. Especially at this level. We’ve never done this before, with all the best players all in one spot. With the travel, the fans. All this stuff. More spotlight than before. It’s a lot.”
It is a lot.
Somehow, both the joy and the pressure across women’s sports came through even before the puck was first hit. Minnesota Captain and US Olympian Kendall Coyne Shofield and Knight waited at center ice for former US Women’s National Team player Sam Mewis to drop the ceremonial puck. Under other circumstances, Mewis would be starting preseason training for her club team. But a persistent knee injury, possibly due to overplay during the World Cup, ultimately did not allow her to come back to full form and forced Mewis to an early retirement. As the US Women’s National Soccer Team Players’ Association Vice President Collective Bargaining Agreement team in 2022, Mewis was essential to the historic equal pay agreement with the US Federation. Coyne Shofield and Knight have consistently advocated for more professional opportunities for women’s hockey throughout each of their careers, for club and country. At center ice, we had three professional American women athletes who drove their respective sports forward, often at the cost of their own time, bodies, and lives.
Photo Credit: James Thomas Photography
But the puck drop is where the goodwill and collaboration ended.
Boston started the top line of Knight, Müller, and Loren Gabel. In the starting defense, the stalwart Megan Keller was paired again with the excellent Sidney Morin. Emma Söderberg started again in goal for the second game in a row, wearing her University of Minnesota-Duluth helmet, which is either a function of a continued custom helmet equipment delay we’ve seen with other goalies, or some Jedi-mind games on PWHL MN; we at Boston Women’s Sports don’t pretend to understand how goalies’ mind’s work.
This Boston team came out much better, with more consistent pressure into the offensive zone. Finally in the fifth minute, DJ Ratty was getting her groove on from Jessica Digirolamo behind Minnesota’s goal and sent the puck almost all the way back to the blue line where defender Kailegh Fratkin was waiting to shoot past traffic, bringing the score to 1-0, Boston.
Before the in-arena media could even get the information on the prior goal up on the center ice screen and announced, Boston had scored again, this time from the fourth offensive line only 30 seconds after the previous goal. The play began when Boston Forward Nicole Kosta picked the pocket of Minnesota’s Taylor Heise (who is nicknamed “Black Cat”- watch here to find out why). Kosta turned around and drove towards Minnesota’s goal, setting up Shiann Darkangelo to make the shot in front of goal. When Darkangelo’s shot took a bit of a sloppy rebound, Girard was there to finish the play and complete the goal. This is the kind of scrappy, dirty, garbage goal for which we have been hoping.
Later in the first, however, Minnesota came roaring back however, who forced a turnover by Keller and Gigi Marvin from behind Boston’s own goal. Minnesota’s Brittyn Flemming pounced and pushed it past Söderberg to make it 2-1.
But the goalscoring wasn’t done in the first period. Assist queen Alina Müller decided to get into the action to notch her second goal of the season. With assists from Gabel and Knight this time, and Knight setting up a beautiful shield to block Goalie Maddie Rooney’s line of vision, Müller sloted it in. First period ended 3-1, with a newly confident Boston side playing free and brave.
The second period was, well, odd. The teams seemed to be locked in a stalemate, and it was hard to tell objectively what was going on. One scoreboard was not working entirely due to an overnight power-outage. And there was a major difference between the in-arena and online totals of shots on goal between both teams by at least 25%. Questions of consistency across all three periods have dogged the team in their previous five games. And unnecessary penalty trouble has cost the team. Even before this game started, Boston’s forward Taylor Wenczkowski was suspended for one game which took effect against Minnesota, following a league-initiated review of a play that had initially been assessed as a 2 minute minor penalty for roughing at Ottawa. Boston continued to be dragged down by penalties in the second, with Fratkin catching a penalty for hooking.
The stalemate dragged on until Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle (the golden retriever to Heise’s black cat) scored with just 48 seconds left in the period.
You can see the frustration of Müller, right near Söderberg that Zumwinkle managed to pick up this rebound and get the goal. Söderberg has been so consistently good with her catches and holding on to the puck, this goal felt deeply unfair. Going into the lockers with the score 3-2, Boston still held the lead, but the margin of victory was eroding with every period.
Again, Boston picked up some unnecessary foul trouble in the third period with too many players on the ice around the third minute, and Fratkin gained some frequent flier miles to the box again for interference near the eleventh. Most notably, Söderberg fended off nine shots on goal in the period, while Boston only got off two attempts.
But as captains do, Coyne Schofield stepped up. In the dying minutes with the game on the line, Minnesota called a timeout, pulled the goalie with 1:15 left and added offensive power in Finnish Olympian Susanna Tapani. With 53 seconds left before the end of regulation, Coyne Schofield equalized, with Lee Stecklein (5), Grace Zumwinkle (2) on the assist.
We barely had time to reset between regulation and overtime before Boston fielded their first three to start overtime, and then started shifting on a second line. Knight got her first touch, took control of the puck all on her own and skated all the way to within range before shooting directly on goal to end the game.
(or for what we think is a better angle on the goal to see the nutmeg… https://twitter.com/Nico_Jt_/status/1751534623685829000
The pleasant symmetry is that Knight scored the game winning goal with what we in soccer joyfully call a “nutmeg,” that cheeky move of maneuvering the ball not around your defender, but obnoxiously through their legs. First, Knight sent the puck through Minnesota’s defender Lee Stecklein. And then, her shot on goal crossed the goal line through the legs of goalie Maddie Rooney.
Maybe it’s the luck of Sam Mewis. Maybe the final score is all that matters. Maybe it’s the joy of Knight doing what she does best and just being comfortable on the ice again.
PWHL Boston’s next game is at home in Tsongas Arena on Sunday February 4th at 3:30pm against Montréal. More information is available here.
Boston Women's Sports 
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