Toronto’s Natalie Spooner holds her son, Rory, who appeared in an Instagram video that showed Toronto chose Minnesota as its opponent for the first round of the PWHL playoffs.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
In the latest unique twist in the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League season, top-seeded Toronto announced in a lighthearted social-media post that the team has chosen Minnesota as its first-round playoff opponent.
After finishing in first place, Toronto earned a rare opportunity in pro sports, thanks to a quirky rule innovated by the PWHL – the right to choose between the third- and fourth-place finishers, Boston and Minnesota. The Toronto team announced it in an Instagram video, with the infant son of Toronto’s league scoring champion Natalie Spooner tossing a ball toward two buckets, and it landing in one marked Minnesota.
That leaves second-place Montreal to face Boston when the new six-team league embarks on its first postseason later this week.
“The process started a long time ago, when we knew the rules, and when we clinched first place, we started those discussions already on the hypotheticals, of who that may be that we get to choose from,” said Toronto general manager Gina Kingsbury in a virtual news conference later Monday, after her team took the allowed 24 hours to decide following the final game. “We looked at all different angles. We talked to our leadership group, we leaned on our athletes.”
The PWHL playoffs will begin in two American Hockey League rinks, sizing up in venues due to the big demand for tickets during this debut season. The postseason opens Wednesday, with Game 1 of the Toronto-Minnesota series at 8,000-seat Coca-Cola Coliseum, home of the Toronto Marlies, a game that sold out in minutes after it went on sale Monday. The second series opens Thursday with Montreal facing Boston at 10,000-seat Place Bell, home to the Laval Rocket. Tickets for that one go on sale Tuesday.
The top four teams in this new six-team league have made the playoffs – the latest watershed moment for the breakout league that has boasted several sellouts and bought-up merchandise since its Jan. 1 launch. The playoffs will feature just two rounds, both best-of-five series. The winning team will hoist the Walter Cup, a brand new 35-pound silver trophy that has on its base an image of a puck shattering a glass ceiling.
A young fan screams in excitement after catching a flying puck during second period action as PWHL Toronto took on PWHL Ottawa, on May 5.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Toronto (13-4-0-7) has two regulation wins, a win, and a regulation loss against Minnesota this year.
Minnesota (8-4-3-9) backed into a playoff spot, thanks to Ottawa’s loss to Toronto on Sunday. Earlier that day, Minnesota was unable to clinch its berth with a victory, when it stumbled to a 5-2 loss in its final regular-season game, versus New York, a club already eliminated from the postseason. In fact, Minnesota hasn’t earned a point in five straight games, and hasn’t tasted winning since March 24.
But Minnesota draws big in a popular city for girls and women’s hockey, and features top talent, like top overall draft pick Taylor Heise, Grace Zumwinkle, and Kendall Coyne-Schofield. Minnesota plays at 20,000-seat Xcel Energy Center in Saint Paul.
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Pressed to explain more specifically why the team chose Minnesota, Toronto head coach Troy Ryan demurred, saying “it would be irresponsible to tip my hand.”
With the Maple Leafs having lost out to the Boston Bruins in the first round of the NHL playoffs over the weekend, PWHL Toronto won’t have to share the city’s hockey attention.
“I’m sad that Leafs are done. I was hoping they would go on a bit of a run, but I think for us to be in the spotlight now, it’s something that we’re really excited about,” said Toronto captain Blayre Turnbull. “Our tickets sold out in a couple minutes once again, so we’re excited about the atmosphere that the fans are going to provide us.”
Toronto was the top-scoring team in the PWHL’s first season, with 69 goals. Spooner topped the PWHL leaderboard in points (27) and goals (20). She finished the regular season on a torrid pace – four goals over the last two games.
“Coming into the season, I had no clue kind of how it was going to go, coming back from pregnancy and managing all that,” said Spooner, whose son Rory is 17 months old. “But I have so much fun every day … and I think we’re just so grateful that we have this league and it’s professional and we get to do it as a job … and luckily my game has really been effective in this league.”
Toronto rehearsed its playoff mindset during its last regular-season game, versus Ottawa on Sunday night. Despite having the top playoff already secured, Toronto rested no one. Ottawa needed a win to make the playoffs, but Toronto denied it.
Sarah Nurse said Toronto wanted to “send a message to the league that we’re not taking our foot off the gas.”
PWHL Toronto players celebrate with forward Natalie Spooner (24) as she scores during third period action as against PWHL Ottawa.Sammy Kogan/The Globe and Mail
Montreal (10-3-5-6) finished second and begins the postseason against Boston on Thursday at Place Bell, where Montreal has played four times this season, twice in front of sold-out crowds of 10,172. Fans will admire a matchup between these two traditional rival cities.
Montreal standouts Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey and Erin Ambrose will see Boston scoring leaders, like Hilary Knight and Swiss Olympian Alina Müller.
This series will feature a rematch between goalies from the gold-medal final at the recent IIHF Women’s World Championship in Utica, N.Y., where Boston’s Aerin Frankel suited up for the U.S., and settled for silver across from Canada’s netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens.
Boston and Montreal split their four-game set during the regular season, with each winning at home and on the road.
In a do-or-die game, Boston clinched a playoff spot on Sunday, in its final game of the regular season, with a dramatic win over Montreal. Boston had stormed out to a 3-0 lead, and then let Montreal tie it back up, before Kaleigh Fratkin scored with just 1:20 remaining to rescue a desperate Boston squad inside a sold-out Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell.
Boston (8-4-3-9) finished strong in the final five games of the season, since returning after the league’s break for the IIHF Women’s World Hockey Championships. In that time, Boston had four wins and a shootout loss.
“This is a different team since the break,” said Knight, Boston’s captain.
After their regular-season successes, it’s hard to imagine it won’t be Toronto and Montreal facing off in the final at the end of this month – a duo that sold out NHL arenas in both cities this season. But anything can happen in a five-game playoff series.
Rachel Brady