Minnesota @ Toronto - 7:00 pm at Coca-Cola Coliseum
Watch on TSN1, Bally Sports North, Womensports network and YouTube
Win and you get to play Boston, lose and you go home.
All four games have been shutouts so far, and the goalie stats are amazing from both teams.
Minnesota has played Maddie Rooney in three games, and she has 65 saves on 66 Shots Against. Nicole Hensley played one game, and she has 16 saves on 20 Shots Against. For Toronto, Kristen Campbell has been in for every minutes, and she has 99 saves on 102 Shots Against.
Generally when your teams' GAA is less than one, you've swept the series. But when the right goalie is in net, Minnesota has a GAA of .29.
In games where the goaltending is this good, scoring isn't coming from the big-shooters. Maybe if the series was 15 games long, we'd see shot-leaders Grace Zumwinkle and Blayre Turnbull with all the goals. Okay, Turnbull has two. But for Minnesota it's Claire Butorac, Maggie Flaherty and Denisa Křížová with the goals. I'll be honest, I've never heard of Claire Butorac.
I'll be honest about something else too. The game Minnesota is playing now that Ken Klee has everyone "playing right" as he said, is boring. It's meant to be boring. It's meant to tip the balance to the goalie and to limit Toronto's speed and rush offence. It's worked a treat, and Toronto, with the exception of a few flashes of sparkle in Wednesday's game, have willingly gone to sleep.
If they want to win, they have to find some way to generate speed and excitement that doesn't involve giving yet another power play advantage to Minnesota.
Don't let boring hockey win.
Oh, and try for more than two shots per period. That might help.
