Minnesota moves a win away from PWHL championship

Minnesota scored in the opening minute and never looked back Friday, beating Boston 4-1 in Saint Paul, Minn., to take a 2-1 lead in the inaugural PWHL finals.

Minnesota can take the best-of-five series -- and the Walter Cup, awarded to the league champion -- with a win in Game 4 on Sunday in Saint Paul.

Taylor Heise opened the scoring with her league-leading fifth goal of the postseason 59 seconds into the game, scoring on an assist from Michela Cava. With 2:22 left in the first period, Minnesota made it 2-0 with Sydney Brodt's first playoff goal. Brittyn Fleming and Kelly Pannek assisted on that score.

Boston got on the board -- though just barely -- in the second period. Forward Alina Muller scored with only two seconds remaining in the frame, her first of the playoffs. Susanna Tapani -- who leads Boston with three goals this postseason -- collected her first assist of the playoffs, as did Jamie Lee Rattray.

That was the only goal Nicole Hensley surrendered in 19 shots faced for Minnesota. After playing in her first game since the playoff opener on Tuesday, Hensley has started and won back-to-back games, stopping 38 of 39 shots faced in the two games.

Minnesota sealed the win in the third.

With 16:31 remaining in the game, Cava and Heise flipped roles, Heise feeding Cava for the latter's third playoff goal. Heise and Cava lead all skaters in playoff scoring with seven and six points, respectively.

Grace Zumwinkle added a short-handed empty-net goal with 3:50 to play to close out the scoring. It was the forward's first point of the playoffs.

Boston's Aerin Frankel made 21 saves on 24 shots. Boston was 0-for-2 on the power play, Minnesota was 0-for-1. Neither team has capitalized on the player advantage so far in the series, with each team going 0-for-6 in the three games.