Minnesota blanks Boston to become PWHL's 1st-ever Walter Cup champion
CBC
Kendall Coyne Schofield once showed off her speed racing against men in a skills competition at NHL All-Star weekend.
On Wednesday night, she sprinted into women's hockey history.
The three-time Olympian chased down a rolling puck and slapped it into an empty net to seal Minnesota's 3-0 victory over Boston in the winner-take-all Game 5 to claim the inaugural championship of the Professional Women's Hockey League.
Liz Schepers scored to break a scoreless second-period tie, Michela Cava made it 2-0 midway through the third and Nicole Hensley stopped 17 shots for Minnesota. Coyne Schofield added the empty netter with two minutes left, and then the captain and oldest member of the roster took the first-ever lap on the ice with the Walter Cup.
"It makes me want to tear up thinking about it. She's done so much for this sport," said forward Taylor Heise. "She's definitely one of the people that's helped this sport grow and one of the reasons why this arena is sold out here tonight."
WATCH | Minnesota beats Boston in Game 5 to claim Walter Cup:
Coyne Schofield, 32, was fresh off of winning the 2018 Olympic gold medal when she was invited to take part in a timed lap around the ice at the 2019 NHL All-Star Game. She finished seventh out of eight, but was a crowd favourite in an arena filled with chants of "U-S-A!"
"What was so important about that moment wasn't the skate itself. It's what happened after," she said on the ice while her teammates posed for pictures with the trophy and and her husband stood nearby holding the son she gave birth to less than a year ago.
Three nights after Minnesota prematurely celebrated a would-be game-winner in double overtime that was waved off for goaltender interference, Hensley earned her second shutout of the playoffs. Minnesota limped into the playoffs on a five-game losing streak and then got shut out in the first two games of best-of-five semifinal against Toronto.
Heise, whose eight points in the postseason was tied for the most in the league, was named the inaugural Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP. The former Minnesota Gopher was the league's first No. 1 draft pick.
"We're `the State of Hockey,"' she said. "And I think this proves it."
WATCH | Minnesota players raise inaugural Walter Cup:
Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, dubbed the "Green Monster" in her forest green home sweater, made 41 saves for the runners-up. The sold-out crowd at the Tsongas Center, about an hour north of Boston, chanted her name and "Thank you, Boston!" after the final buzzer, even as the Minnesota players celebrated on the ice and league officials set up the podium for the trophy presentation.
Boston forced a decisive fifth game only after Sophie Jaques' apparent goal in double overtime in Game 4 was taken off the board because of goaltender interference. The Minnesota players, who had already streamed onto the ice to celebrate, throwing their equipment in the air, gathered up their gloves and sticks, and the game resumed.
