Montreal will face Boston after Toronto selected Minnesota due to finishing the season in first place.
Monday was a day the PWHL had circled on their calendar as the day the first-place team, in this case, Toronto would have to announce who they had picked as their semi-final opponent and they selected Minnesota who squeaked into the playoffs after Ottawa lost to Toronto in the final game of the PWHL regular season.
That meant Montreal will now face Boston who just played this past weekend in a game where Montreal attempted to pull off a comeback after trailing early 3-0 but fell short and ended up losing 4-3.
“I understand playoff hockey is a completely different beast,” Hilary Knight told the media virtually on Monday evening on a Zoom call. “I am really excited for the fan engagement and showing up for playoffs and it’s extremely exciting to keep this rivalry going and it’s one of the biggest rivalries in sports.”
Montreal and Boston faced off four times during the regular season and split the season series with both teams getting two wins and two losses which makes the series that much more interesting.
“It’s been a long time coming,” Marie-Philip Poulin told the media in French. “To be in the playoffs is really exciting and to start at home in front of our fans I am really looking forward to it.”
The timing for PWHL in Montreal couldn’t be more perfect with both the Montreal Canadiens and Laval Rocket not making the playoffs in their respective leagues putting a spotlight on women’s hockey in a hockey-mad city that will make for a pretty big atmosphere.
“Montreal is a big sports city and we are very lucky to play in Place Bell, Thursday can’t come quickly enough and playing Boston it’s going to be a fun series.”
The big selling point has to be between Poulin and Knight who both played in Montreal for Les Canadiennes but Poulin says there is a lot of mutual respect and it is not about just the two players.
“The mutual respect is there and every time we play each other is an honour and we have played a lot on the international stage and the player and person she has become is quite remarkable and we’re both extremely competitive.”
I was able to ask Poulin if she feels there is an advantage to playing an opponent who you just played and she feels it could go either way for both teams.
“That last game was very physical and that’s an approach we need to look at and how fast it’s going to be, and for us, that game is already in the past for us and now it’s playoff time and it’s a whole new season and for us, we need to manage our power play and penalty kill and even five on five and we go from there.”
I also had the opportunity to ask Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie about the adjustment that a coach needs to make when playing the same team in a five-game playoff series.
“I think the preparation started a little while ago,” she told me. “It’s about getting your athletes in a mindset where it’s going to be a long series but you do need to take it one game at a time and you need to be able to move on quickly as a coach and an athlete and I can’t speak highly of our staff who have already gotten to work on the preparation for playoffs and we’re ready.”
The puck will drop Thursday night at Place Bell for game one at 7:00 pm and tickets for that game will go on sale tomorrow on Ticketmaster with game two scheduled for Saturday night.
Here is the series schedule :
Montréal (2) vs Boston (3)
Thursday May 9
Game 1: Boston at Montréal (Place Bell) at 7:00 p.m. ET
Saturday May 11
Game 2: Boston at Montréal (Place Bell) at 7:00 p.m. ET
Tuesday May 14
Game 3: Montréal at Boston (Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell) at 7:00 p.m. ET
Thursday May 16*
Game 4: Montréal at Boston (Tsongas Center at UMass Lowell) at 7:00 p.m. ET
Sunday May 19*
Game 5: Boston at Montréal (Place Bell) at 7:00 p.m. ET
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