Best-of-three series come to the Premier Hockey Federation's playoffs this weekend. Beyond first glance, that might not be the disadvantage it seems for a Minnesota Whitecaps team Boston-bound to play the two-time defending league champion Pride.

Fourth among seven teams in the PHF regular season with a 10-11-3 record, the Whitecaps play first-place Boston (19-4-1) in one semifinal series while the third-seeded Connecticut Whale visit the second-seeded Toronto Six.

Boston and Toronto potentially will play all three games at home, which isn't necessarily daunting for the Whitecaps. They went 7-3-2 on the road and 3-8-1 at home this season.

The two teams will play at Bentley Arena in suburban Boston starting Thursday.

"It kind of feels like that," Whitecaps coach Ronda Engelhardt said when asked if her team has been better on the road than at home for its first season in Richfield Arena. "Maybe the results weren't what we always wanted, but we strung together some quality games."

The series winner advances to a neutral-site championship game at the NHL's Arizona Coyotes' temporary home arena in Tempe, Ariz., on March 26.

Minnesota won the Isobel Cup in 2019, and Boston won it in both 2021 and 2022.

Moved from Tria Rink in St. Paul to Richfield, the Whitecaps' 2022-2023 was uneven, to say the least. They lost their first four games — two home, two away — in November. Then they went 10-2 the next three months before they lost eight consecutive games in February and March to end the regular season. Six of those eight were at home.

Star goaltender and former three-time NCAA champion with the Gophers Amanda Leveille missed six of those games injured. Three other players — Sydney Brodt, Liz Schepers and Natalie Snodgrass — missed a two-game series to play for Team USA in the Rivalry Series against Canada.

"I just think we're looking for that fresh start now that it is the playoffs," said Engelhardt, who co-coached the Whitecaps to that 2019 PHF title. "Obviously, we haven't been too happy with the scoreboard as of late. But we are seeing progress and we're hoping that changes here this coming week."

Engelhardt said Leveille will start Game 1 for a Whitecaps team that has been shut out three times and held to one goal three times in its last seven games.

"We haven't had that successful offense lately, but I do think we're a super-hungry team and we're hungry to beat this Boston team," Engelhardt said. "Losing [Leveille] hurt. There were just a couple weeks where practice wasn't consistent between injuries, sickness, we were down to 10 players at one point.

"Just a little rough patch. I feel like we're coming out of it."

The Whitecaps went 0-4 against the Pride in a November home series and at Boston two weeks ago. But two of those were 5-4 losses, one in overtime and one in a shootout.

"It's definitely nice looking back to see how we've played on the road, and I think that does give us a good feeling going on the road," said Brodt, who played at UMD. "... We're super excited as a group. Playoff hockey is always the best kind of hockey, where there is that added pressure. There's just more anticipation for those games."

Minnesota Whitecaps vs. Boston Pride

Isobel Cup playoff semifinals

Thursday: 6 p.m. at Boston Pride

Saturday: 5 p.m. at Boston Pride

(If necessary) Sunday: 5 p.m. at Boston Pride