TORONTO (AP) — Jesse Compher scored the go-ahead goal with 1:25 left in the game and Toronto beat Minnesota 2-0 on Friday night to take 2-0 lead in the best-of-five Professional Women’s Hockey League playoff semifinal series.
Hannah Miller added an empty-netter with 10 seconds to play for top-seeded Toronto and Kristen Campbell earned her second straight shutout with 21 saves.
Maddie Rooney stopped 28 shots for Minnesota.
Compher was knocked down behind the net moments before scoring, finding her way in front to tip in Renata Fast’s point shot seconds after getting back on her feet.
“I honestly didn’t see much, just tried to go to the net as hard as possible,” Compher said. “We’ve talked about it all year, getting in front of goalies, taking their eyes away creates chaos and hopefully good things come from that.
Game 3 is scheduled for Monday at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, Minnesota. Toronto would advance to the PWHL final for a chance at the Walter Cup with a win.
“It’s exciting,” Toronto forward Sarah Nurse said. “We’ve worked all season for this. … We’ve done a good job of managing the emotions and balancing and not getting too high or too low."
Toronto had some of its best scoring chances in the first period.
With just under nine minutes remaining, Sarah Nurse's shot was stopped after she made a rush toward the net on a two-on-one. However, she was tripped from behind by Sophie Jaques.
On the ensuing power play, Miller let a shot fly from the left faceoff circle. Rooney didn’t appear to see the puck, which hit Minnesota defender Lee Stecklein’s skate by the right post and stayed out.
“It’s tough, right?” Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said. “Obviously we wanted to get the (1-1) split, it just didn’t happen.
“We had as many chances as they did, it was a great hockey game, just didn’t fall our way. But now we get to go home, we’ll have our home fans, we’ll have our energy. We’ve been great at home all year so we look to continue that.”
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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
The Associated Press
