Minnesota wins 3-2 at Boston in its first PWHL game, starting new era in women's hockey

Four days into the new year, the teams in the Professional Women's Hockey League still don't have nicknames. The Minnesota franchise earned itself a nice temporary handle Wednesday: winners.

Minnesota beat Boston 3-2 in its PWHL season opener at Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass., starting off a new era in women's pro hockey with a victory.

The team got goals from three Minnesota natives — former Gophers stars Taylor Heise of Lake City and Grace Zumwinkle of Excelsior, and Sophia Kunin of Wayzata — and goaltender Nicole Hensley staved off a fierce Boston attack over the final two periods.

Heise, the No. 1 pick in the league's inaugural draft, scored the first goal in team history at 3 minutes, 58 seconds of the first period. Kunin made it 2-0 at 7:54 before Boston cut the lead to 2-1 with Theresa Schafzahl's goal at 7:59 of the second period.
Zumwinkle quickly restored the two-goal margin when she scored 55 seconds later.

But the headliner was Hensley, who stood tall when the Minnesota offense sputtered.
Boston outshot Minnesota 35-16, including a 13-2 edge in the third period. Many of those were grade-A chances produced by a lineup full of scorers, but Hensley dived, lunged and slid to stop all but two. Her 33 saves were the most in the three PWHL games played so far.

The game, played before a crowd announced at 3,552, was the first PWHL contest in the United States. Minnesota will play its home opener Saturday afternoon at Xcel Energy Center.

"I just told [the team], 'I'm happy for the win, but we have a lot of areas to get better at," Minnesota coach Ken Klee told reporters after the game. "I don't want to give up 35 shots. I don't want to give up that many scoring chances.
"As far as strengths, we've got some girls who can shoot the puck. The one-timer from [Zumwinkle] was awesome. Taylor's snap wrister, same thing. Going bar down, those are world-class shots. It's awesome for people to see, 'Holy cow, these girls can really play.' "

Wednesday's game was the third in the league's inaugural season. The schedule launched Monday in Toronto, where visiting New York won 4-0 before a sold-out crowd of 2,537. On Tuesday, Montreal won at Ottawa 3-2 in overtime before a crowd announced at 8,318, the largest ever at a professional women's hockey game.

Minnesota's opener was played at the home of the UMass-Lowell men's hockey team.

Boston took some time to warm up, while Minnesota's offense put its first two shots past Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel.

Heise collected a Boston turnover in the neutral zone and hustled to the right circle, unleashing a shot that soared over Frankel's shoulder and off the underside of the crossbar for a 1-0 lead. Kunin beat Frankel by going to the same spot. After getting the puck following a battle on the right boards, she darted into the right circle for another bar-down goal.

Minnesota's defense kept Boston in check for much of the first 20 minutes, disrupting its attack in the neutral zone and limiting quality scoring chances.

But the Boston roster is led by Olympic captain Hilary Knight, and it features many players familiar to Minnesotans.
Former Gophers Gigi Marvin (Warroad), Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights) and Emily Brown (Blaine) and former Minnesota Duluth defender Sidney Morin (Minnetonka) were in Boston's lineup Wednesday. As the first period moved along, they helped settle things down.

Boston began to control play in the final minutes before intermission and kept the heat on through the final two periods. Schafzahl scored as her team swarmed the Minnesota net, beating Hensley from the slot to pull her team within 2-1.

But Minnesota cut that momentum short when Mellissa Channell carried the puck into the right circle and found Zumwinkle in the slot. Zumwinkle fired the puck over Frankel to put Minnesota ahead 3-1.

Boston outshot Minnesota 24-9 over the final two periods and got three power-play opportunities in the third.

After Schafzahl's goal, the only one Hensley allowed was Megan Keller's power-play goal with 2:40 left in the game.

"[Hensley] was outstanding," Klee said. "She was the player of the game for us. She was calm, cool, collected."

The Star Tribune did not send the writer of this article to the game. This was written using a broadcast, interviews and other material.