Mira Jalosuo is the assistant coach of Minnesota, which is celebrating the PWHL championship. Boston’s season represented by Susanna Tapani ended with disappointment in the final series.
10:35•Updated 11:05
The season of the women’s professional ice hockey series PWHL culminated early on Thursday Finnish time, when Boston and Minnesota met in the fifth game that decided the championship. At the end of it, the first PWHL championship in history was celebrated by Minnesota, who won the last match of the final series with a score of 3–0.
He scored the winning goal of the match Liz Schepers at the beginning of the second period. Michela Cava increased Minnesota’s lead in the first half of the third, and Kendall Coyne Schofield finished the final score to an empty net at the end of the match.
Minnesota’s victory celebration also has a Finnish color, because Mira Jalosuo serves as Minnesota’s assistant coach.
– First championship as a coach, of course this means a lot. Probably the biggest championship for me was as a player in 2013, when we didn’t lose a single game with the Minnesota Gophers (college series in the NCAA). I would probably rank it higher than this championship. But of course this will stay in my mind for eternity, Jalosuo said with the impressive medal around his neck.
The victory party is about to begin
The championship was already on hold for Minnesota on Sunday, but Boston extended the series to the fifth game with its overtime goal. Jalosuo said that after the loss of the fourth game, the team headed to the locker room with the idea that they could play hockey a little longer. On the day of the deciding game, I felt confident.
– During the whole game, it didn’t really feel like we were going to lose this game. And in the morning, too, I felt relaxed before going to the game. He knew that the team was in a good fight, and there were rested players.
At the time of the interview, about an hour and a half had passed since the final buzzer sounded. After securing the championship, Jalosuo had time to celebrate by drinking one drink.
– Let’s just say that as a Finn, I am very disappointed with my own performance at the moment. There is only one drink below so far. In general, you should probably have a six-pack already drunk by now. But I really haven’t managed to drink more than one myself. I had a two-year-old son in the hall, so I had to be a mother until then.
The team will return to Minneapolis on Thursday, but Jalosuo did not yet know if there will be any kind of celebrations in his home region.
– Yes, let’s just go with the flow here, but then we’ll see where the wind takes us.
The loss motivated Susanna Tapani to summer training
One of those disappointed after the fifth final was Boston’s center forward Susanna Tapani.
– Of course, it’s never nice. We wanted to win this game and we got here at home, but these are tight games and this time it happened like this, said Tapani. Despite the loss, the Home crowd received praise from him for his encouragement both in the final match and throughout the season.
Tapani saw the lack of goals as the biggest reason for Boston’s loss.
– The opponent played very tight defense and scored the necessary goals. That was probably solved today.
The championship team has players familiar to Tapani, as he also started the season in a Minnesota shirt, but he moved to Boston in February with the player trade.
Tapani, the only Finnish player in the professional league, describes the first season in the new league as full of phases.
– A lot has happened, and it has been a great experience. Good memories remain from this year, even though it ended in defeat.
Next, Tapani will return from North America to Finland, where the plans are to spend a little vacation first. Summer training was motivated by the hunger left over from the championship fight.
– It’s nice to come back to this next year, when there was still more to achieve, Tapani said.