Kendall Coyne Schofield delivered a cautionary message when assessing the edge in playoff experience she and the defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost enjoy entering the PWHL Finals against the Ottawa Charge.
鈥淵eah, it helps, but it鈥檚 not everything,鈥 Coyne Schofield said before the best-of-five series begins in Ottawa on Tuesday night. 鈥淭hey just played an incredible four-game series the last week-and-a-half, too, right? And that鈥檚 experience they just gained.鈥
The Frost have the championship experience in returning to the finals after a . The Charge, , are playoff newcomers after missing the postseason in the PWHL鈥檚 inaugural season last year.
And the real lesson is how as the finals once again feature a showdown between the two lower-seeded teams. The Charge finished third in the six-team standings and the Frost fourth 鈥 just as they did last year 鈥 with both clinching their respective berths with wins on the final day of the season.
鈥淲e have a lot of respect for Minnesota. Obviously, they were here last year and they went all the way,鈥 Charge captain Brianne Jenner said. 鈥淲e know it鈥檚 going to be very hard. But our group has never shied away from hard work. We鈥檙e pretty excited to get started.鈥
Minnesota鈥檚 23-player roster returned 16 from the squad that defeated Boston in five games last year. Ottawa features just four players with previous playoff experience 鈥 and they鈥檙e all former 海角社区官网players who lost a five-game semifinal series to Minnesota a year ago.
鈥淚t鈥檚 just showing the parity that we have in our league,鈥 Minnesota coach Ken Klee said, referring to a regular season in which four points separated second-place 海角社区官网and fifth-place Boston, with the Fleet eliminated by a tie-breaker after finishing tied with Ottawa and Minnesota.
Contrasting styles
The Frost are known for their offense. After scoring a league-leading 85 goals in the regular season, Minnesota outscored 海角社区官网by a combined margin of 18-14. Minnesota features the playoffs鈥 top six scorers, with Taylor Heise leading the list with seven points (one goal, six assists).
The Charge place an emphasis on a hard-hitting defensive style, and finished the regular season tied for last with 71 goals scored. Ottawa is coming off a semifinal series in which it totaled nine goals, with all four games decided by one-point margins, . With two goals, Jenner is the only Charge player to have scored more than once in the playoffs.
In net
Propelling Ottawa鈥檚 playoff run is rookie goalie Gwyneth Philips, who has taken over the starting duties since Emerance Maschmeyer was sidelined by a lower body injury in mid-March.
The 25-year-old from Ohio closed the season with a 4-1 record in which she allowed six goals. And she鈥檚 built on her performance by allowing just six goals on 135 shots in the playoffs, including a 26-save 1-0 shutout in Game 3.
鈥淲e have so much confidence in front of her,鈥 Jenner said. 鈥淲hen you try to go on a run like this, it takes depth, it takes players stepping up at crucial moments. And Gwen has done that for us since she entered the net.鈥
The Frost continue to go with a rotation in net, with the former U.S. national team tandem of Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley. Rooney went 2-0 against Toronto, while Hensley 1-1, including a 26-save outing in a 4-3 series-clinching overtime win.
The teams split their season series with three wins apiece, and Minnesota outscoring Ottawa 15-14.
Getting here
Coyne Schofield sees similarities between this season and last year鈥檚 run to the championship in which Minnesota won both series in a deciding Game 5s, and overcame a 2-0 deficit against Toronto. This year, the Frost clinched their playoff berth by winning their final two games, including a 3-0 victory at Ottawa.
鈥淭his playoff feel, kind of goes back to those two games,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e鈥檝e stepped up to the plate and to the challenge, and we鈥檙e excited for the next one ahead of us.鈥
The Charge also had to scrap to get to this point in closing the season 4-1 and clinching their playoff spot with .
鈥淩eally proud of our group just continue to find our way and recognizing that adversity is part of the experience, and it鈥檚 what allows you to grow,鈥 Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod said. 鈥淚 think we鈥檝e grown from it and we find ourselves in a nice opportunity now.鈥
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AP freelance writer Madie Hricik contributed to this story.
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