Ten Stats and a Movie: Curtains

And now, the end is here and so we face the final curtain (if you heard Frank Sinatra in your head as you read that, just know I appreciate you). As soon as the clock hit zeroes in Lowell, Massachusetts so ended the last PWHL game of the 2024 season. After a hard-fought season and playoffs, it’s Minnesota coming out on top with the Walter Cup in Game Five over Boston. While there’s still the exclusive signing period, draft, and then free agency still left to go before the 2024 season is officially over, there is no more PWHL hockey to be watched until fall/winter. Now that the speedrun of January to May hockey is over we can take a look back at what the heck just happened in these playoffs.

1.  The 1^st overall pick Taylor Heise is named the Ilana Kloss (PWHL Playoff MVP) Trophy winner after putting up eight points (five goals, three assists) in 10 playoff games. Her five playoff goals are MORE than the four goals she scored in the regular season.

2.  Don’t call it a comeback…or maybe do. I’m not your supervisor. To win the Walter Cup Nicole Hensley had her second shutout of the postseason and no one even knew if she’d have this opportunity. She lost the net to Maddie Rooney for five games before getting it back to finish strong. When Hensley got the net back, she wasn’t going to waste it as she also put the ghost of the 2019 Isobel Cup loss to bed.

3.  You’ve heard the story of the 300 Spartans, but have you heard the story of Aerin Frankel’s 300 shots against? Next closest wasn’t even one of the Minnesota goalies, it was Kristen Campbell at 131 shots against. With a workload like that it’s hard not to see why fans were clamouring for Frankel to win the Ilana Kloss Trophy.

4. This season was full of firsts (duh) but also set records that it might take awhile to actually see get broken. One of those records is Boston putting up FOUR straight overtime wins in the playoffs. That includes a triple OT and a double OT too plus a semi-final sweep that was all games in OT. One of the wilder playoff runs we’ll probably see in a long time.

5. Before the season started I wrote a piece talking about the importance of goalie depth. I took some heat and I’m sure in some circles it was disregarded as it was going to be a short season, what do you need goalie depth for? Turns out it was needed as both Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney played five playoff games racking up three wins apiece to boot.

6. If you were to write a book about the 2024 PWHL Playoffs, one chapter could be titled Return of the Six. After putting up six points in four playoff games last season en route to winning the Isobel Cup with the Toronto Six and being named PHF Playoff MVP, Michela Cava showed it was no fluke as she would tie Taylor Heise in playoffs points with eight points in 10 games. Maybe the craziest aspect is she put up all eight points in the five games of the PWHL Final after having none versus Toronto.

7. It’s always a daunting task to win the championship in any league. To win a series after losing SEVEN straight games leading up to the series win is just another potential record that we won’t see broken for a while. All the respect and stick taps in the world to Ken Klee along with the rest of the Minnesota coaching staff for getting the team back on track just in time. The more you think about the more it shows how special of a run Minnesota made when they lost all five games post-international break that were left in the regular season then went down 0-2 to Toronto. All that is forgotten now as they’re the champs! The cherry on top? Unless there’s a rule change we haven’t been made aware of, Minnesota will pick third overall in the 2024 PWHL draft.

8. When the PWHL’s first-ever trade was made between Boston and Minnesota the idea was Boston was losing a high-potential player in Sophie Jaques but was getting someone very good straight away in #88 Susanna Tapani (plus Abby Cook). That reasoning saw itself prove true in the playoffs as Tapani scored two overtime goals versus Montreal, including the Game Three winner, to send Boston to the Cup Final.

9. Amanda Pelkey had nine shots on goal in the eight playoff games she got into. That was all she needed to make a big impact for Boston in the playoffs. Pelkey scored the first goal in Game Two vs Montreal and in Game Three scored the goal to send the game to OT…shorthanded!

10. With the 10^th overall pick in the 2023 PWHL Draft, Boston selects… Minnesota Walter Cup winner Sophie Jaques! The rookie blueliner was highly touted but couldn’t find a fit in the Boston line-up which saw her traded to Minnesota. Her play exploded in Minnesota as she finished fifth in team scoring as well as third in playoff scoring. Stick taps to Natalie Darwitz who knew the Minnesota blueline needed a player who was full of offensive skill and it proved to be very fruitful as seen by the production plus the Cup win!

Movie Recommendation: I made a Frank Sinatra reference up top and I’m going to end it with a Sinatra reference here in the movie section with “Sing” being the movie recommendation for this week! There’s characters for everyone to relate to and root for. Seth McFarlane really shows off his classical singing ability too. It’s a fun movie if you like animation, singing, and a variety of song choices. And then if you like this movie check out its sequel!