Boston, Montreal set for showdown

boston will face Montreal in the Professional women’s hockey league playoffs.

toronto, by virtue of earning the No. 1 seed, got to choose its semifinal opponent and selected Minnesota. boston, which defeated No. 2 seed Montreal in its final regular-season game to clinch a playoff spot, will begin the best-of-5 semifinals on thursday. Montreal finished its first Pwhl season with a 10-35-6 record. boston went 8-4-3-9.

“we’re just excited to be in the playoffs. I don’t think it matters who we were going up against,” boston coach Courtney Kessel said. “we knew it was going to be a battle no matter who we were facing.”

toronto (13-4-0-7) hosts the opening game of its semifinal series at 7 p.m. wednesday. General manager Gina Kingsbury said team leadership sought input from players and coaches in making its choice, and also reviewed statistics and recent results.

Minnesota made the playoffs despite losing each of its last five games in regulation.

“Very difficult decision as you can imagine, with the parity in the league,” Kingsbury said.

Montreal and boston split four games in the regular season, each winning once in regulation and once in overtime, as well as once each at home and on the road.

“we welcome any opponent,” boston team captain hilary Knight said.

toronto went 3-2 against boston this season and 3-1 against Minnesota (8-4-3-9), with one of those wins coming in overtime. but boston got on a hot streak after the Pwhl season took a break from late March into April for the world championships. It won four of five games after the season resumed on April 18.

“It’s a new season. we had a great ending and we came on hot after worlds. but this is playoff hockey and anything can happen,” Kessel said.