On Sunday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, we were treated to an exceptional defensive slugfest between PWHL Minnesota and PWHL Boston. Following the first three games, Boston’s back was against the wall, and has been the standard for them since April, Aerin Frankel was called upon early and often to keep them in the game. For Minnesota, after incredible starts in games two and three, they went back to Nicole Hensley who has been nothing short of spectacular in her last 120 minutes between the pipes.

               The opening twenty minutes (spoiler: like the last forty) of regulation were tightly checked defensively with neither team particularly out chancing the other. This continued into the second period, where the defense tightened up to a point when the shots on goal recorded was 5-3 in favor of Boston (8 shots is a very low event period). The third period saw Minnesota take over control of the pace of play in the game, partly in fact to them having the only special teams’ opportunities of the frame. Despite great looks from both teams from their best players, the game had been destined from overtime from the opening puck drop.

               At the outset of the first overtime, this became an entirely different game, with both teams putting more trust in their exceptional goaltending, by sacrificing defensive layers to spring a scoring chance on fast odd-woman rush at the line. Both teams saw success in OT1 with far more high-end scoring chances, despite the shot total being 7 to 5 in favor of Minnesota. OT2 saw the same style as its predecessor, but with both teams playing to win, rather than not to lose, more openings were being generated as hungry would-be heroes were pushing past tired legs. Late in the period, Sophie Jaques was given false hope of a victory by referee Jared Cummins as he failed to call an obvious goaltender interference less than 8 feet in front of him on her would be game winning goal. Following a review from the situation room, the goal was stricken from the board, and the women played on once more. Less than 3 minutes later, Alina Müller would bring about the games’ end off a defensive zone turnover and wicked nip through traffic against Hensley, who was sensational all night.

               This was a great game. This was a true championship style game with tough and gritty play from both sides. Game five will be exciting to watch. However, there are a lot of fans on social media who are unwittingly doing damage to the league and its future. Sitting behind a computer screen and pushing negative narratives about players on the other teams, the officials, and the league itself is problematic. Accusing the PWHL of being rigged so early in its inaugural playoffs is a toxicity that will prevent new fans from joining. Using derogatory names and statements toward players is going to prevent family-oriented casual fans and observers from engaging in the community. Sports leagues succeed or fail depending on how well the community can bring others into the fold. 24 hours of online vitriol while the league has its highest ever visibility is terrible for optics, and the people dedicating their time to this should feel ashamed of themselves. At the end of the day, the sun rose in St. Paul, Lowell, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, and New York (blanket statement for every city the Pizza Rats have been in this season) this morning.