PWHL Minnesota wins first-ever Walter Cup championship: ‘We knew we had to have it’

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LOWELL, Mass. — The first-ever PWHL final couldn’t have ended in a better way: with Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne Schofield scoring the empty-net goal to seal the championship.

“There are so many things about this day that she deserves,” Minnesota goalkeeper Nicole Hensley said. “She’s obviously done so much for this sport and for this professional league. It’s only fitting that she is the first to touch the Walter Cup.

Coyne Schofield – a key figure in the creation of the PWHL – hoisted the Walter Cup after his team beat Boston 3-0 in Game 5 of the PWHL Finals on Wednesday night. Mark Walter, billionaire owner of the Los Angeles Dodgers and now the PWHL’s sole investor, presented the trophy to Coyne Schofield and, at the captain’s request, helped her lift it.

“I asked Mark to hold it with me for a second,” she said on the ice after the game. “It was cool to be able to keep that around.”

Today, Coyne Schofield and PWHL Minnesota made league history as the first team to win the Walter Cup, the 35-pound league trophy designed and manufactured by luxury jeweler Tiffany & Co.

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“It wouldn’t end any other way,” forward Liz Schepers said. Athleticism after the game. “She’s the reason we’re all here.” She is simply a huge inspiration to our team and to the sport as a whole.

Schepers, a Minnesota native, scored his first PWHL goal just over six minutes into the second period, which proved to be the championship winner. General manager Natalie Darwitz said Schepers’ line of Claire Butorac and Sophia Kunin had been one of the best in the playoffs and it was fitting — and good timing — for Schepers to score her first career goal.

“You look at the balanced scoring that we got on every line, all of our D, I mean, it took everyone,” Coyne Schofield said. “That’s what it takes to win a championship. And I think that’s why we were able to rise to the occasion tonight.

Michela Cava doubled the lead in the third period with her fourth goal of the PWHL final to put the game out of reach for a Boston team that was struggling to generate offense when it mattered most.

The fact that the score was so close was due to Boston goalie Aerin Frankel, who made 41 saves on 43 shots as her team mustered just 17 on goal and three in the third period. Minnesota did a great job of stifling Boston’s offense and keeping most of the chances on the perimeter.

Although Hensley wasn’t tested often, she was solid in stopping all 17 shots she faced for her third win and second shutout since taking the starting court again in Game 2 of the series .

Minnesota won the best-of-five series 3-2 after thinking it had won it back at home at the Xcel Energy Center — at least for a few minutes before Sophie Jaques’ double-overtime goal was called back due of goalie interference. . Alina Müller scored to force a fifth and final game in dramatic fashion, but Minnesota still prevailed.

“I just think coming away with something as good as that, like the last game, I just think we knew we had to have it,” Taylor Heise said. “Like that feeling (of winning) – you had it and you want it back.”

Heise – the PWHL’s first-ever draft pick – was named Ilana Kloss’ first-ever playoff MVP. She scored the series winner in the semifinals and led the playoffs in goals (5) and points (8).

The Walter Cup, she said, was heavy after not doing any upper body workouts in a while. “It was a loop for the girls there,” she laughed.

Minnesota entered the playoffs as the lowest seed (4) and on a five-game losing streak to end the regular season. The team was on the verge of elimination against Toronto, who took a 2–0 lead in the series, but won three straight games to advance to the finals and upset the league’s top-ranked team .

“Honestly, it’s hard to put into words,” Coyne Schofield said. “A lot of people excluded us. From the moment we arrived, we never looked back. There were times when we were depressed, but we weren’t absent. Some people may have excluded us, but we believed in ourselves until the end.

It’s only fitting that Coyne Schofield won the Walter Cup at the Tsongas Center, considering that’s the arena where she made her return to hockey after giving birth to her son, Drew, less than 11 months. It was well past bedtime, but Drew was on the ice with his parents and was placed in the Cup.

“What it took just to come back and be ready to go.” January 3rd it was me and him because my husband was still playing football and I took a picture with him right here and I said mom is going to play her first professional hockey game,” said Coyne Schofield . “For this to be my first match, and now my last in one place as champion. It was certainly an emotional year. And I’m so grateful that Mark and Kimbra believed in us.

It was also Coyne Schofield who called the legendary Billie Jean King six years ago to ask for help on the state of professional women’s hockey. As King told a small group of media gathered Sunday, she and Kloss met with the three-time Olympian and told her they would try to help her.

They did it, involving Walter.

“It took us a few years,” King said. “When Mark said yes, it was a huge day for us. And we knew then that (the league) had a chance to not only survive, but to really succeed. »

King and Kloss are now members of the league’s advisory board and have their names on the regular season and playoff MVP trophies. When King reflected on what it would be like to see Coyne Schofield among the first players to win the Walter Cup, she said: “It couldn’t be more perfect. »

(Photo: Troy Parla / Getty Images)





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