PWHL Minnesota mounts comeback for 3-2 overtime victory at Ottawa

Down by two goals after the first period, Minnesota scored three unanswered, two by Susanna Tapani, to rally and win.

January 18, 2024 at 4:51AM
PHWL Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle (13) celebrated her second-period goal with Susanna Tapani, right, on Wednesday night. Tapani scored Minnesota’s other two goals in its 3-2 overtime win at Ottawa. (Adrian Wyld, Canadian Press via AP/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

In a season of firsts, PWHL Minnesota added another Wednesday night: an overtime victory.

Down by two goals in the first period, Minnesota scored three unanswered to nip host Ottawa 3-2.

Susanna Tapani's second goal of the game — her first two tallies of the season — was the winner 1 minute, 57 seconds into the extra session.

The teams were tied 2-2 heading into the third period after each turned in a dominant 20 minutes.

Ottawa (1-0-2) opened the scoring just 3:41 into the game when Savannah Harmon popped in her first goal of the season. Six minutes later, Lexi Adzija took advantage on the power play to give the home team a 2-0 lead.

Minnesota (4-0-1) bounced back in similar fashion in the second. Tapani got Minnesota on the board with a power-play goal early in the period. At 11:20 of the second, Grace Zumwinkle took a feed from Kelly Pannek and buried past Emerance Maschmeyer for a shorthanded goal to knot the score.

For Zumwinkle, it was her PWHL-leading fifth goal of the young season and just the third shorthanded goal since the league began earlier this month.

Goalie Nicole Hensley made 24 saves for the victory.

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