Boston defeated Montreal 2–1 in its PWHL semifinal opener and took a 1–0 lead in the series. Three wins are required for a place in the finals.
Boston’s Finnish striker Susanna Tapani scored the first playoff overtime goal in the history of the women’s professional hockey league PWHL early on Friday Finnish time.
In their PWHL semi-final opener, Boston defeated Montreal 2–1 thanks to Tapan’s goal and took a 1–0 lead in the series. Three wins are required for a place in the finals.
Kristin O’Neill took Montreal to a 1–0 lead in the second period with superiority, but Lexie Adzija equalized in the final set, so a solution was sought in the overtime.
Tapani, chosen as the third star of the match, decided the match by moving the puck from in front of the goal to the net when the first overtime had been played at 14:25.
Tapani said the goal was a relief.
– I had a feeling that we would score at some point, Tapani said According to TSN.
Boston’s hero had no fewer than 53 saves Aerin Frankel. The number of strikeouts is a new PWHL record. Boston shot 26 times in the match.
– I got a couple of lucky bounces. At one point someone told me the puck was in my pants. Then it fell on the ice. We were a little lucky with the puck today, 2023 world champion Frankel said.
Boston’s head coach Courtney Kessel was satisfied with the away win in front of 9,135 spectators.
– The energy in the rink was huge. The atmosphere was loud from warm-ups until the end of the game. Did the match take a little longer than we would have liked? Yes, but in the playoffs, what’s got to be done, Kessel said.
The best four from the six-team regular season made it to the playoffs of the first season of the PWHL.
Toronto, who won the regular season, could choose either the third- or fourth-placed team as their opponent. It ended up choosing fourth-place Minnesota.
Boston, third in the regular season, thus had Montreal, second in the regular season, as its opponent.
Toronto beat Minnesota 4–0 in the teams’ opening matchup and leads the series 1–0.
Boston and Montreal will next meet early on Sunday Finnish time. Toronto and Minnesota already play a day earlier.