Team Minnesota believes it’s time to make someone else uncomfortable in the Professional Women’s Hockey League playoffs.

Enough of Toronto goaltender Kristen Campbell getting a clean look at Minnesota’s best scoring chances. Enough of Toronto’s penalty-killers feeling confident enough to get their own quality scoring chances while short-handed. Enough of being the visiting team playing in front of a large, raucous crowd.

Enough of the losing.

Down 2-0 in the best-of-five series, Minnesota needs a win tonight at Xcel Energy Center to keep its season alive. Playing at home should provide a needed spark after the two losses in Toronto.

“In Toronto, you couldn’t hear anything,” Minnesota center Taylor Heise said. “You couldn’t hear your neighbor, you couldn’t hear anything on the bench. That’s exactly what we want to hear in (our) building.”

Minnesota has yet to score a goal in the postseason, losing 4-0 in Game 1 and 2-0 in a Game 2 that was scoreless until the closing minutes.

Minnesota was much more competitive in Game 2 but will have to raise its game another level to stave off elimination.

“The first game, we were a little off,” Minnesota coach Ken Klee said. “We didn’t play our smartest game, and they made us pay for it. The second game, we played our style of hockey. We weren’t giving them free looks.

“They scored four rush goals, which we haven’t done that all year, where we were on the wrong side of pucks. The second game was right there for us — we just have to grab it. We had power-play chances, we had shots, we got good looks. We’ve got to keep fighting the fight.”

Klee said he didn’t feel his team sacrificed any offense in Game 2 in order to contain Toronto.

“We had more offense,” he said. “You play hockey the right way, you get offense. People think you need to cheat to get offense. It doesn’t work that way at high-level hockey. You play the right way, you’ll force them into turnovers, where you get your breaks.”

Klee said prior to the start of the series that Minnesota’s key forwards, including Heise, Grace Zumwinkle and Kendall Coyne Schofield would have to produce for Minnesota to win the series.

The time is now for it to happen, and for Zumwinkle, it starts with making things more difficult for Campbell.

“We need to get to the dirty areas,” she said. “We’ve let her see a lot of shots and let her off easy at some points.”

Heise said Minnesota also needs to do a better job of maintaining control of the puck in the offensive zone and not turning it over by simply cycling things down into the corner.

“We’re better than that,” Heise said. “They haven’t given us a ton of time, but we’ve done a lot of work in practice getting shots through to the net, getting shots through from our defense, getting tips on net.”

Klee mixed up his lines for Game 2, including pairing Zumwinkle with Heise in hopes of giving the offense a spark. Both players know they need to raise their games.

“It’s easier said than done,” Zumwinkle said. “You start putting pressure on yourself, but it’s hockey at the end of the day. You can’t overthink it. Just continue to do the things that have
made us successful this year.”

Offered Heise: “You’re not always going to have your best days, and for me personally, last game I wasn’t really happy with it. So coming out and doing what I can to help the team succeed — I think if everyone in our locker room will do that, it will come out in a positive way.”

Minnesota also needs to find a quick fix to a lackluster power play that has plagued the team all season. Minnesota is 0 for 5 on the power play in the series after having one of the worst power plays in the league during the regular season.

“We’ve moved people around, right side, left side, we’re attacking the goal line,” Klee said. “We had some good goal-line shots, some good point shots. Now it’s just finishing.”

Klee also gave credit to Toronto’s penalty-killing units.

“They’re No. 1 in the league for a reason,” he said. “They really press hard, so if we start putting pucks on the wall, or rimming, they’re going to attack. We need to make two or three tape-to-tape passes and then look to attack.”

Zumwinkle said playing on the power play calls for a particular mindset.

“Yes, you have to execute,” she said, “but you have to have the mindset that I’m going to go and score.”

Succeeding in that area on Monday night, especially early, would give a Minnesota fan base eager for something to cheer about a reason to explode.