PWHL Minnesota’s Walter Cup Run Fueled By Taylor Heise, Michela Cava

PWHL Minnesota is one win away from capturing the first-ever PWHL championship, and Taylor Heise and Michela Cava are critical factors in the team’s success.

Heise leads all skaters in the playoffs with five goals and seven points after recording four goals and nine assists in the regular season. Cava ranks second with three goals and six points. Cava had tallied five goals and three assists in 24 games for PWHL Minnesota in the inaugural PWHL season. Heise and Cava each have three goals in the Walter Cup Final with PWHL Boston.

“(Michela) has a lot of confidence in her play (…),” Heise told reporters after Minnesota’s 4-1 Game 3 win on Friday night. “(…) At the end of the day, great players step up in great moments, and this is definitely one of those.

Heise continued: “Just getting the puck, knowing that she has that confidence and sometimes it just takes putting the puck in one time for you to change your game. She’s a great hockey player.”

Cava was a bit taken aback by her teammate’s description of her play.

“Now that was very nice,” Cava said. “What she said, I don’t really know how to add. I mean, playoffs are do or die. It’s a super fun experience to win a championship, and obviously, this is going to be the first one, so basically, just do everything you can and use all the skill you have and all the energy you have and leave it all out here. It’s what I tried to do every single game.”

PWHL Minnesota leads PWHL Boston 2-1 in the best-of-five series with the chance to capture the first Walter Cup in league history on Sunday night. PWHL Boston is prepared to fight and force Game 5.

Puck drop for the do-or-die Game 4 at Xcel Energy Center is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET, and you can watch the game on NESN. If necessary, Game 5 of the PWHL finals will be on May 29 at Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts.