PWHL Minnesota piles up points at home by shutting out Boston

Nobody really had to talk about it. All the players had to do was look at the PWHL Minnesota schedule to see the opportunity in front of them, with four home games in a row at a critical juncture in the season.

Wednesday, Minnesota reached the midpoint of that stretch with two wins in two tries, thanks to a 4-0 victory over Boston. The three points boosted the team back to the top of the PWHL standings, giving it 30 points to put it into a three-way tie with Montreal and Toronto.

Minnesota got there with a strong overall effort, including the first shutout of the season for goaltender Nicole Hensley and two goals from a reconfigured top line.

That new-look line, which put Michela Cava with Kendall Coyne Schofield and Taylor Heise, staked Minnesota to a 2-0 lead before an Xcel Energy Center crowd announced at 4,669. Hensley stopped 20 shots to extend Minnesota’s win streak to three games.

Hensley said the players hadn’t talked about the importance of the homestand, but they had been discussing the need to win in regulation. PWHL teams get three points for regulation victories and two for overtime wins. In a stacked league that’s entering the final third of the regular-season schedule, they know every point matters.

“In this league, the standings are so tight. Every single game is important,’’ Hensley said. “We want to be able to get all three points.

“We’ve got some more games before a pretty long break. We definitely want to head into that break with momentum. So we’ll enjoy today, but we’ll shift our focus to (Saturday’s game against) New York pretty quick.”

BOXSCORE: Minnesota 4, Boston 0

Wednesday’s game was the 17th of Minnesota’s 24-game schedule. The team started the day in third place, three points behind Toronto and Montreal and seven ahead of Boston, which is tied with Ottawa for fourth place. The top four teams in the standings will advance to the playoffs.

Minnesota coach Ken Klee wanted his team to get out to a quick start, especially since Boston had won all five games in which it had scored first. But Minnesota hadn’t played a game in eight days since starting the homestand with a 4-3 shootout win over Ottawa on March 5.

The team also was facing Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel, who stopped all 41 Minnesota shots in a 2-0 shutout in the last matchup between the teams. Minnesota struggled early with its passing and puckhandling but remained patient. At 18 minutes, 12 seconds of the first period, it took a 1-0 lead when Heise found Coyne Schofield open for a quick shot from point-blank range.

Cava made it 2-0 on another heads-up play in the second period, scooping up a puck off the end boards and banking it off Frankel at the right post.

“I think we were a little more relaxed,’’ Klee said. “When you look at the first, great play by Taylor, and Kendall just quickly gets it off. It’s usually how quick you can get shots off, not how hard.’’

Grace Zumwinkle scored on a power play in the third period, and Heise added an empty-net goal at 17:57 of the third. It was her first goal since returning to the lineup March 3 after missing five games because of an injury.