Minnesota completes comeback in PWHL playoffs with 4-1 win against Toronto to advance to finals

The last team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League playoffs, Minnesota had to wait until the season’s final day to see if it would make the postseason.

Minnesota then had to wait to see its opponent, as top-seed Toronto got to pick its first-round opponent.

The late-season struggles continued in the first round as Minnesota lost the first two games of the best-of-five series in Toronto.

It all made for an amazing comeback for Minnesota in the first year of the league.

PWHL Minnesota went on the road to Toronto on Friday and knocked off the top-seed 4-1 to advance to the finals against Boston, which swept Montreal in its series.

Maddie Rooney, who took over in goal mid-series for Minnesota, stopped 27 of the 28 shots she faced on Friday. Denisa Krizova opened the scoring in the second period for Minnesota, which put the game away with three goals in the third period.

Taylor Heise scored twice and Sophia Kunin added another goal for Minnesota, which will open the finals on the road in Boston on Sunday with a 4 p.m. game.

Both semifinals ended with the lower seed winning the series. Montreal entered as the second seed, while Boston was third.

Toronto had cruised through the regular season, finishing in first by six points over Montreal (47-41). Meanwhile, Minnesota had limped to the finish with five straight losses, having to wait and see if another opponent lost on the season’s final day.

Toronto continued that dominance in winning the first two games of the playoffs by a combined 6-0 score before Minnesota’s rally.

Returning home, Minnesota outscored Toronto 3-0, including a double-overtime affair in Game 4 to force the deciding fifth game on Friday.

After Krizova scored in the second with assists to Kelly Pannek and Sophie Jaques, Toronto tied the game 38 seconds later. Rebecca Leslie scored for Toronto, which was playing without Natalie Spooner, the league’s regular-season leading scorer. Spooner was injured in a collision with Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle during Game 3.

But as they’ve shown the ability to do, Minnesota’s players bounced back again.

Heise scored 8:30 into the third period with assists to Lee Stecklein and Kendall Coyne Schofield.

With Toronto pulling goaltender Kristen Campbell, one of the league’s stars this season, Kunin scored an empty-net goal just over 10 minutes with assists to Abby Boreen and Stecklein.

Heise finished the game with another empty-net tally with 15 seconds remaining to clinch the victory and a berth in the first-ever finals. Coyne Schofield and Jaques assisted on the final goal.

Campbell maded 27 saves on the 29 shots she faced.

Jaques and Coyne Schofield each had a pair of assists. Pannek won 11 of 18 faceoffs while Heise won 11 of 16 draws. Minnesota finished 2 of 3 on the power play with Krizova and Heise’s first goal both coming with the advantage.

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