Written by Laura Everett
What are we playing for?
This question is before the PWHL all season. Sometimes, the response feels forced, as players are fed pre-packaged answers about playing for the next generation. PWHL branding says, “ice-time, earned.” Men just get ice time. But the reality of sports has been that women have to earn it.
The obligation, so often for female athletes, is to play for something else. Not just play the game, claim the moment, win the prize, but always, always, always for something grander. Even if that means playing for a trophy named after a male financial backer.
On Tuesday night, down 0-2 in a five game series, Montreal was playing for the next game. Win or go home, as the saying goes. It’s a long bus ride back north.
Boston, on the other hand, had a bit of breathing room. In this five game playoff series, Boston was already up 2-0 on the higher-ranked Montreal. In the PWHL’s inaugural season with a new set of rules, regular season leading Toronto had the option to choose their opponent. Toronto chose to play Minnesota. Thus, second-place Montreal drew third place Boston. And gloriously, Boston won both of the away games.
On Tuesday May 11, Boston came back home after a decidedly righteous road trip. After pushing their way into the playoffs, Boston forced their way through two wins on the road against a formidable Montreal team. Most importantly, Boston was peaking at just the right moment.
Adding to their growing confidence, Tuesday saw the return of two essential members of PWHL Boston’s regular season line ups: Jamie Lee Rattray and Loren Gabel, both of whom had been out with injuries.
On May 4, Jamie Lee Rattray was hit on open ice by Montreal Forward Sarah Lefort, which ultimately resulted in a one game suspension that was served in the first game of the playoff series. At the time of the hit, no penalty was called.
Tuesday’s game started slow, and Minnesota initially looked in control with a 1-0 lead on a goal from Canada National Team Captain Marie-Philip Poulin. The prior game on Saturday in Minnesota went into triple overtime, which basically meant that both teams had played the equivalent of a full additional game of hockey. So when game three started on Tuesday, the pace of play was noticeably slower. The players looked like they had just skated six periods three days prior.
“Let’s manage the first period. We know they’re coming in hot,” assessed Boston’s Coach Courntney Kessel, recently nominated to PWHL Coach of the Year, in post-game interviews. “We got out of that period with one goal, thanks to our great goalie (Aerin Frankel). And from there, we built momentum.”
What are we playing for?
Boston was playing to clinch, to sweep, to make it to the finals and prove that this incredibly stacked team was not just great on paper, but on ice.
Montreal was playing for one more chance at ice time. Yet, somehow, their will to finish was just not there.
In the post-game press conference, Montreal’s Coach Kori Cheverie said she thought of the twelve periods played, Montreal was superior in ten of them.
After the game, Boston’s Coach Kessel responded, “You read those articles, and Kori is telling us that we’re lucky. She’s using that as motivation for her team, that we celebrated too hard in the third overtime goal. You know they’re coming in for blood.”
What are we playing for?
If another coach gifts you such fuel for your fire, that your team is celebrating too hard after winning? That you’re just “lucky?” You take her quote, blow it up to 300 pt font, and tape it to each and every locker of your players. You are playing to prove them wrong. You are playing to make them eat each and every one of their words.
You are playing for even more ice time into the finals.
And you remind your players between every period that your opponent is underestimating you, as “lucky:” not as skilled, not as determined, not as tenacious.
You set out to prove them wrong.
Slowly, Boston began to generate that momentum from Frankel at the back, and forward.
At one towards the end of the first period, Frankel had saved so many stellar shots in a row that the crowd started shouting her name. This is a crowd that knows what good goalkeeping looks like and respects their goalie.
This is a goalie with saves. “She’s tiny, but she plays like a huge goalie. We wouldn’t be here without her,” Kessel said. Frankel endured 34 shots on goal, and maintains a 0.929% save percentage.
This is also a DJ with jokes. When the Canadian national Poulin scored, the DJ played “That don’t impress me much,” by Shania Twain. Boston sports runs on petty, sponsored by Dunks or not.
In the second period, two minor penalties got Boston into some trouble, with Murphy scoring on the power play.It took until the third period to really prove Montreal wrong. Montreal’s Maureen Murphy scored in the second, leaving Boston down 0-2. By the end of the second period, Boston was outshot on goal, 25-11.
But somehow, the Boston side did not panic. Frankel kept Boston in the game. In the second, shots on goal were even 7-7.
The third period is when Boston built. Play was very physical, as it has been most of the playoffs. Refs really let play continue, and players were really taking advantage of the hitting against the boards. The frustration between the two teams was apparent as players needed to be separated by referees multiple times.
Into the third, Forward Susanna Tapani crumpled down with a hit against the boards at an awkward angle and the crowd became deathly silent. For Boston fans and hockey fans in general who remember the Boston Pride’s Denna Laing becoming paralyzed for a hit against the boards, these moments are always far too close to home. When Tapani gets up and leaves the ice under her own powers, cheers and sighs of relief fill Tsongas Arena.
Early in the third, Boston looks as if they’ve scored, with the lights and buzzer going off. But upon further review, local favorite Montreal’s (née Boston) Jillian Dempsey disappoints her hometown with a ridiculous save with her stick right on the line.
And here, the momentum begins to build for Boston. Montreal is charged with a hooking penalty, though Boston fails to convert just yet.
About seven minutes played into the third period, Boston Forward Amanda Pelkey drops the puck for Sophie Shirley coming in behind her and Shirley scoops it beautifully in the net just over Desbiens’s right shoulder.
Boston’s Alina Müller went to the box at 15:38 for boarding, giving Montreal a powerplay late in the game. As a nervous quiet fell on the crowd, Amanda Pelkey skated down the ice, shocked Montreal, and ended the power-play with a gorgeous shot and joyously skated to penalty box to release Müller.
PWHL’s rules stipulate that if you score on a short-handed goal, your player in the penalty box is released at the time of the goal. While we’d love some less carceral language about “jailbreaks” because incarceration is bad, we do wholeheartedly endorse any and all celebrations of liberation. Women taking up space and celebrating is fundamental to the joy of pro women’s sports leagues, and we want to see more, not less cellys.
The crowd’s “Let’s go Boston” chants get even louder as the seconds tick down in the 3rd. The period ended even despite a flurry of last minute shots from Boston.
Pelkey’s “jailbreak” goal evened the score 2-2 to end the third period. And for the third playoff game in a row, Boston and Montreal were heading into overtime.
What are we playing for?
Heading into overtime, all the drive was leading towards Boston who had just scored two late goals: all energy, no panic.
Boston was playing to win.
Montreal was playing to not lose.
For so much of this season, Boston has played constrained. As Coach Kessel has said at times, this was a team that was “gripping their sticks too tight.” But somehow, this was a team that was playing loose and free. A team playing to win. Perhaps most of all, a team having fun.
Game One on May 9 took 14:25 for Susanna Tapani to score in overtime.
Game Two on May 11 took three periods of overtime or a painful 51:14 minutes to get to Taylor Wenczkowski’s clutch goal. Even after nearly an extra hour of grueling hockey, Boston never gave up.
Game Three on May 14 took a mere 1:02 for Susanna Tapani to finish things off.
“I went North, like we’ve been trying to do.” Tapani said after the game. “We haven’t done it so often, I was trying to play through it as fast as I could.”
A game winning goal 62 seconds into overtime to sweep Montreal, a team that claimed Boston was lucky and celebrating too hard.
That, my friends, is how you make your opponents eat their words.
Send them North.
Upcoming Games: With Boston’s win and Toronto falling to Minnesota, Boston is now the highest ranked team left in the playoffs, and thus has home ice advantage throughout the five game PWHL Finals series. Boston plays at home in Tsongas Arena on Sunday May 19 at 5pm and again on Tuesday at 7pm. Boston heads to Minnesota Friday May 24, and if a game 4 is necessary, Sunday May 26. Should a game 5 be necessary, Wednesday May 29 returns to Boston.
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