The reality that PWHL Montreal faces in their best-of-five semifinal against Boston is much difference than the reality of the situation. Montreal is down 2-0 and needs to win two games in Boston just to bring the series back to Montreal for a deciding fifth game. One more loss and their season is over.
Despite losing two games – which both ended in overtime (one in three overtimes) – you could be hard pressed to say that Montreal has been outplayed in either game. That isn’t to say they deserved a better fate necessarily, but it just means that they could just as easily been up 2-0 as they are in their current situation.
Looking at it that way, it’s easier to see a path where if Montreal wins one game, the pressure shifts on Boston who face winning Game 4 or having to come back to Montreal for a winner-take-all Game 5 after having a two-game advantage. First things first, Montreal has to extend their season one game at a time.
The fourth line dilemma
The big story from the first two games has been Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie’s bench management. The fourth line did not take a single shift in Game 1, and in Game 2, played under five minutes despite the game going into a sixth period. Two of Montreal’s seven defenders played less than a minute. Another played under six minutes.
On one hand, you see Cheverie’s mindset. After Game 1, she said that if the fourth line gets scored on in a bad matchup that’s her fault, not the fourth line’s. In Game 2, the fourth line was on the ice for a goal against. It was against Boston’s fourth line, but Cheverie’s fear was realized.
Now, she’s backed into a corner. Her stars played over 50 minutes and the second unit was close to 40 minutes. Notably that second unit was a bit slow to respond as Boston’s Taylor Wenczkowski (who started on the fourth line and played 12:42) pounced on a loose puck. Without last change in Boston, you’d have to think she’d be even more hesitant to play her entire bench which now compounds an issue as her team faces elimination.
She obviously doesn’t want to workshop playing them more when she has no control of the matchup in an elimination game, so can we expect any changes to how the lineup is utilized?
What we could see is her changing up the lines and insulating players differently. It wouldn’t shock me if Cheverie splits up Marie-Philip Poulin and Kristin O’Neill to have two reliable centres on two different lines. You can then use Gabrielle David and Jillian Dempsey with different sets of wingers and have more faith in them. Likewise, they could play different pairings to spread out ice time a bit more, especially given how much some players played in Game 2.
They simply need to score more
The main issue for Montreal isn’t simply that the stars may get fatigued, it’s that they can’t score on Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel. They are shooting 1.8% through two games, and do not have an even-strength goal. Even their power play – which has scored both of their goals in the series (and is the only PWHL power play to score a goal in the playoffs) – went cold in overtime when they had seven minutes to capitalize and end Saturday’s game much earlier than it ended up finishing.
They did a better job at creating traffic in front of Frankel in Game 2, making even simple saves harder for the goaltender. They didn’t have the great scoring chances like they did in Game 1, but they had enough good looks. Getting 50+ shots in two games, they don’t really need to change much except the outcome. If they can get an early goal (or maybe even two??) it simultaneously takes the pressure off of Cheverie in her bench management and maybe the players hold their sticks a little less tight.
Things won’t get any easier in Game 3 as Jamie Lee Rattray is expected to return to the lineup after missing the first two games.
Game 3 will be at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts on Tuesday night with puck drop at 7:00 p.m. Eastern.
