PWHL RECAP: Toronto Beats Minnesota in Semi-Final Game 1

It's finally here! The first-ever PWHL playoff game went down in Toronto between PWHL Toronto (1st) and PWHL Minnesota (3rd).

Remember, Toronto chose to play Minnesota and that led to a bunch of travel chaos, including Lee Stecklein's dad driving all over Minnesota to retrieve the player's dogs...

Lee Stecklein's dad yesterday:

Anyway, we made it here.

Period 1:

Toronto opened the scoring at 9:47 in the first period with a goal from, you guessed it, Natalie Spooner.

Would it really be a PWHL Toronto game if Natalie Spooner didn't score?

There were a couple of chances for both sides before the end of the period but no one could put one home.

Period 2:

Toronto kicked off the period with another goal, this time from our Tiktok queen, Emma Maltais.

I'll let one of Emma's latest Tiktoks sum this one up.

The teams traded penalties but no one scored, something that Minnesota will take as a positive after having a pretty terrible penalty kill lately.

In fact, neither team registered a powerplay goal this game.

With about 5 minutes left, Toronto captain Blayre Turnbull wanted in on the action and she got one past Nicole Hensley.

Minnesota finished the period outshooting Toronto but just couldn't get anything going.

You have to think there was a bit of this going on in the Minnesota dressing room:

Period 3:

Minnesota picked up a bit more momentum at the beginning of this period, but Campbell came up big with a couple of stops.

It was a pretty quiet period, especially for Minnesota who couldn't seem to claw their way back into this one.

With about a minute left, Turnbull decided she wanted ...

...and that would seal the win for Toronto.

The team that finished first in the league took game one 4-0 at home.

In conclusion:

Game 2 is Friday at 5 P.M. EST in Toronto and I'll leave you with this.