PWHL Preview: Toronto at Minnesota

Toronto at Minnesota – 8:00 pm Eastern Time – 3M Arena at Mariucci
Watch on Linear TV: Bally Sports North
Streaming: CBC Gem, YouTube

This game is being held in Minneapolis in the arena used by the University of Minnesota men's hockey team. With a capacity of 10,000 it's a better size for a PWHL game than the NHL rink in St. Paul.

Minnesota last played on Sunday at home against Boston. Boston beat them by a score of 2-0. They are in second place with a Points % of .538 from 21 points in 13 games.

Toronto last played on Friday at home to New York, who they beat 2-1 in a shootout. They are in third place with a Points % of .528 from 19 points in 12 games.

A regulation win puts Toronto ahead of Minnesota by points as well as percentage. An overtime of shootout still puts them in second place.

Them

Minnesota passed their halfway mark and have 10 more games to play after this one. They seem a lock for the playoffs, but their goal scoring rate is the lowest in the league and just barely outpaces their goals allowed. They have good goaltending, get very few power plays for or against and allow fewer shots against than most teams. They're very close to Toronto's low number per game.

They are the worst team on the PP and PK by success percentage, which could be a result of variance in small numbers. They have had 34 power plays and faced 34. But there may be some lack of structure on the power play that is hurting them.

Grace Zumwinkle – one of Team USA's players who are so good you kind of hate them and love them in equal measure – leads the team with seven goals and nine points. And that fairly low number is a symptom of their lack of goal scoring.

Their job got harder as Taylor Heise was put on LTIR per reports yesterday.

Us

Toronto's shots for and against are pretty similar to Minnesota and the teams are fairly evenly matched. Toronto has an absurd 95 PK success %, and a bad PP success %. Like Minnesota, they get goals from a very few people, and they need to score more. When you take out the two shootout winners, Toronto has a -2 goal differential on the season.

Things have been good lately with the wins, but the PWHL is a low-scoring league, so finding more goals is very difficult.

The Game

Minnesota seems vulnerable right now, and Toronto is riding pretty high. If only that was the deciding factor, this would be a lock for a win. But it's a good chance to repeat their last meeting which Toronto won 4-1.

The late start might mean you can catch the ending after the Leafs game. Remember you can stream this for free everywhere.