Assassin-like Heise leads Minnesota over Toronto, to PWHL final

TORONTO —  Taylor Heise isn’t sure what the title of Minnesota’s winning song is, the one they blast in the dressing room after victories, but the author of the game-winner that led her team to the PWHL championship final knows the gist of the tune. 

“I just know it says ‘win, win, win, win,’ and then it has a bad word, and then it’s everything else: ‘Win, win, win,’” a grinning Heise said Friday night, after Minnesota earned a third straight victory against Toronto to complete a reverse sweep, to finish off one hell of a comeback, so they could hear that tune again. 

“So, just sing about winning,” Heise added, dancing a little in her chair to underscore the point. “Winning’s fun, and winning as a team is somethin’ indescribable, especially when you have everyone in the locker room jumping around, singing, we’ve got our coaches coming in, dancing and stuff, so it’s extremely fun.” 

Minnesota head coach Ken Klee made it clear that he wasn’t dancing, but he was feeling good when Game 5 was over and done with Friday night. He won a Game 7 while playing for the Toronto Maple Leafs 20 years ago, and said being behind the bench was a lot more nerve-racking than playing himself.  

In front of a raucous and sold-out Toronto crowd, the fourth-seeded Minnesota underdogs earned a 4-1 win (with two empty-netters) to take Game 5 in a series that top-seeded Toronto led 2-0, before dropping three straight. 

Minnesota will play Boston for the inaugural Walter Cup in a best-of-five championship series that opens on Sunday in Boston.   

The goal that got Minnesota there was assassin-like. Heise, the No. 1 draft pick ahead of this season, broke a 1-1 tie nearly halfway through the third period on the power-play when she labelled an absolute rocket of a wrister into the top corner. A bullet that beat Toronto netminder Kristen Campbell, glove-side. 

Klee told Heise that was the best she’d played “in quite a while.” Friday marked her first and second goals of the series. “And she just had a different energy, a different attention to detail, a different energy to her game,” Klee said. “When she stopped and started she was on it, you could tell. I mean, I got people watching our line and said, ‘That's the best game I've seen Taylor Heise play,’ and I said, ‘I agree. I already told her.’” 

Top-seeded Toronto, who earned the right to select their playoff opponent (they picked No. 4 seed Minnesota over No. 3 seed Boston) is done for the season. 

Toronto defender Renata Fast took a deep breath as she sat down in front of reporters post-game. Captain Blayre Turnbull had glossy eyes and fought back tears. 

“It stings a lot right now,” said Fast, the agile defender who had a team-leading five shots on net in Game 5. 

“I think the way that we battled and competed tonight, I really thought that we could pull out a win, but it’s tough to feel that way and come up short,” Turnbull added. The captain was one of the best players on the ice Friday, at both ends. 

This Toronto crowd wanted it badly for their team, and they were amped all game, waving towels, yelling “Let’s go T-O!” Every time Campbell (nickname: “Soupy”) made a save, a booming “Soouuuup!” rang out in the crowd. Fans wore nurse hats for star forward Sarah Nurse, and sat behind a sign for rookie of the year candidate Emma Maltais that read “Welcome to EMMA NATION Buckle Up!”

During the singing of the Canadian national anthem, the big screen flashed to a grinning Natalie Spooner and fans lost it, mid-anthem. The league’s leading scorer, Spooner suffered a season-ending knee injury in Game 3 and Toronto wasn’t able to win a game since she left the lineup, though coach Troy Ryan pointed out that wasn’t why his team couldn’t get it done and earn that third win.   

It was scoreless through the first period, and then this game blew open unlike any other in this series, which had featured shutouts in all four previous games.   

Nearly mid-way through the second, Minnesota struck on the power play, when Kelly Pannek hit the post and Denisa Křížová fired the rebound into a wide-open net. The arena went quiet for a minute or so, and then fans stood and waved their towels, rallying their team. 

Seconds after that, the crowd absolutely exploded. Just 38 seconds after Minnesota scored, Toronto tied things up when Victoria Bach saucered a pass over a defender’s stick to hit Rebecca Leslie, who was charging toward the net and deflected the puck home. But that was the lone puck they could get past Maddie Rooney, who made 27 saves for the win. 

“She's definitely been our backbone for the team and I think she's bailed us out when we needed it,” said Minnesota forward Grace Zumwinkle, a rookie of the year candidate. “And I think it allows us to play a lot more confident in front of her.”

Heise fired that bullet of a winner, Minnesota’s second of the night and second on the power play, with just under 12 minutes to go in the third.

Toronto fans didn’t lose an ounce of enthusiasm, and even busted out some “Ref you suck!” chants with three minutes to go in the third, after Turnbull took a hit. 

Sophia Kunin added the dagger empty-netter, and then Heise put another into the open goal for her second of the game. The 24-year-old Minnesotan was named the game’s first star. 

Minnesota’s celebration on the ice began right after the buzzer, but even as they celebrated, Toronto fans stood and waved their towels and cheered and clapped in appreciation of their team. 

The only time Turnbull smiled in her post-game press conference was when she talked about those fans, who she recognized were cheering when the game was nearly over, even through the sadness she felt, knowing that her team wasn’t coming back.  

“And then you feel a lot of gratitude for the fans, for the support that we got here in Toronto. I think it was unbelievable all season, regardless of what rink we played in, our fans showed up and cheered us on,” Turnbull said. “And to hear them support us throughout the duration of that game, especially at the end when it wasn’t looking good, it meant a lot to us.” 

This Minnesota team played with a chip on their shoulder, knowing Toronto had decided to play them in the first round of the playoffs. 

“Obviously they thought that they were going to beat us in the series, and I think coming in and winning two games, I think they were pretty confident with that…For us, we're never going to give up. We are from the State of Hockey,” Heise said. “We had the belief in ourselves and honestly, I don't think anyone else did, especially by the way we ended [the season] and then the way the series started, the reverse sweep. I'm just really proud of our group and I'm excited to go to Boston with them.”

And so the final is set: Boston vs. Minnesota to determine the first-ever PWHL champions. 

“I think we're going to relish in the fact that we kind of came out and we kicked some ass today and did a really good job in this series,” Heise said. 

“If we focus on what we can do, we're going to come out and we're going to shock Boston, we're going to shock, you know, even ourselves, I think sometimes, because I think we have more potential than we can even imagine right now.”