Minnesota blank Boston to become first Professional Women’s Hockey League champions

Kendall Coyne Schofield once showed off her speed while racing the men in an NHL skills competition during All-Star weekend.

On Wednesday evening she took an amazing dive into the history of women’s hockey.

The three-time Olympian chased a rolling puck and knocked it into an empty net, sealing Minnesota’s 3-0 win over Boston in the winner-take-all Game 5 to claim the inaugural Professional Women’s Hockey League championship.

Liz Schepers scored to break a scoreless tie in the second period, Michela Cava made it 2-0 midway through the third period and Nicole Hensley stopped 17 shots for Minnesota. Coyne Schofield added the empty-netter with two minutes to go, before the captain and senior member of the squad took to the ice for the first round with the Walter Cup.

“It makes me want to tear up when I think about it. She has done so much for this sport,” said forward Taylor Heise, who was named playoff MVP. “She is definitely one of the people who has helped this sport grow and one of the reasons this arena is sold out here tonight.”

Three nights after prematurely celebrating a potential game-winner in double overtime that was waved away due to goaltender interference, Hensley earned her second shutout of the playoffs. The two-time Olympian from Colorado had scored one goal in 14 games during the regular season as Minnesota limped into the playoffs after a seven-game losing streak.

“We are ‘the state of hockey,’” said Heise, the league’s No. 1 overall draft pick. “And I think this proves it.”

Boston goalkeeper Aerin Frankel, nicknamed the “Green Monster” in her forest green home jersey, made 41 saves for the runner-up. The sold-out crowd at the Tsongas Center, about an hour north of Boston, chanted her name and “Thank you, Boston!” after the final buzzer, even as the Minnesota players celebrated on the ice and league officials set up the stage for the trophy presentation.

Boston only forced a decisive fifth game after Sophie Jaques’ apparent goal in double overtime in Game 4 was taken off the board due to goaltender interference. The Minnesota players, who had already poured onto the ice to celebrate, threw their equipment in the air, grabbed their gloves and sticks and play resumed.

A minute later, Alina Muller scored to send the series back to Boston.

The crowd was eager to see the home team receive the new trophy, named after league benefactor and Los Angeles Dodgers owner Mark Walter, chanting, “We want the Cup!” just like Bruins fans do in Boston. A Fenway-style sing-along of “Sweet Caroline” kept them entertained during the second intermission.

But with the game scoreless early in the second, Minnesota forward Sydney Brodt skated through the slot toward the goal. She sniffed a wrist shot that pulled Frankel out of position, then slid to the right side and centered the puck behind her, where Schepers tapped it in.

It was still 1-0 when Cava circled behind the net and stuffed the puck between Frankel’s pads; it trickled to the net before the goalkeeper knocked it over the line as she reached back to save it with her stick hand.

The match was a crowd-pleaser of the six-team league’s first season, blowing through some benchmarks but leaving others unfulfilled.

A game in Montreal against Toronto drew more than 21,000 fans to the Bell Centre. The average attendance in the regular season was 5,448, which gave the league the confidence to expand the schedule from 24 games to 30 next year. Toronto is looking for a bigger home than the 2,500-seat arena where most of its games have been played.

One negative was the below-average attendance for the New York team, which split their home between Connecticut, Long Island and New Jersey. Games were broadcast nationally in Canada in English and French, but American fans were left with regional networks and YouTube.

And the teams don’t yet have nicknames — a result of the rush to get on the ice in six months after North America’s two competing professional women’s hockey leagues declared a truce, with help from Walter and tennis great Billie Jean King, previous year. summer. The league said Wednesday that names and logos will be announced in August.