During 14 seasons as an NHL defenseman, Ken Klee learned that every playoff series has its own distinct character. The PWHL Minnesota coach didn’t expect things to be any different in the newest pro hockey league.

He saw that play out Sunday, when Minnesota opened the Walter Cup finals with a 4-3 loss at Boston. In the semifinals, goals were hard to come by, as Minnesota and Toronto combined for only 14 in five games. Minnesota and Boston scored half that total in Game 1 of the finals, signaling that this best-of-five set could be more wide-open.

Klee played in 51 NHL playoff games, so he knows how to adapt when the scenario changes. After a back-and-forth opener in the finals, he will adjust the game plan accordingly for Tuesday’s Game 2 at Boston.

“It’s a new series, and we’re going against new people now,” Klee said. “It’s a different look than what we had [in the semifinals].

“Hockey series are always going to take on their own identity, and now, we know what this is going to be like. And it’s good.”

The four goals were uncharacteristic for Boston, the PWHL’s lowest-scoring team in the regular season. Coach Courtney Kessel said increased scoring has been a focal point for her group since league play resumed April 18 after a break for international play. Boston has lost only once in eight games since the break and is 4-0 in the playoffs, but it’s scored two or fewer goals in six of those.

Minnesota also has struggled to score after the break, with a total of 14 goals in the 10 games before Sunday. But its top line is heating up, centered by a resurgent Taylor Heise. In the past two games, Heise has four goals and an assist, and her line provided all of Minnesota’s scoring Sunday.

Heise said being down 1-0 in the series isn’t a concern for a team that roared back from a 2-0 deficit in the semifinals.

“We’re kind of used to it,” she said. “Against Toronto, we never lost hope. We did some really good things [in Game 1], and there are some things we can do better.”

In Game 1, Boston forced some turnovers, and it had stretches where it slowed down the Minnesota attack in the neutral zone. In Game 2, Minnesota will need to match Boston’s physical play, continue relying on its speed and avoid repeating the defensive lapses that hurt the team in the opener.

Kessel wants Boston to get out to a better start after it took more than seven minutes to put a shot on goal in Game 1. She hopes it continues to respond to Minnesota goals the way it did Sunday. Boston twice erased one-goal deficits and scored the game-winner only 15 seconds after Minnesota tied the score.

A Minnesota couple in the midst of a “bureaucratic nightmare” amid a months-long stay in Brazil, where paperwork issues regarding their newborn son have prevented them from returning to the United States, is one step closer to being able to leave. 

Chris and Cheri Phillips, of Cambridge, located 50 miles north of Minneapolis, visited the South American nation in February for what was supposed to be a two-week trip. The couple consulted with doctors before leaving and were encouraged to travel, as Cheri Phillips’ due date was not until June 2. 

Chris, who has a young daughter who lives in Brazil with her mother, visits the country at least three times each year. His wife usually accompanies him on at least one of those trips, they said. 

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On March 8, two days before they were slated to return home, Cheri Phillips began bleeding, and they went to the hospital. Several days later, Greyson Phillips was born through C-section. He spent 51 days in a neonatal intensive care unit before being discharged to his parents on May 3. 

“While his health track has gone overall quite well, we are still stuck in a bureaucratic nightmare with regards to Brazilian documentation and American documentation,” Chris Phillips told Fox News Digital from the AirBnb where the family is staying in the coastal city of Florianópolis. “The only reason we can’t bring him home is because he doesn’t have a Brazilian birth certificate, and we can’t get him his American passport until he’s got that birth certificate.”

Despite the fight for their son’s life, the fight to get him to the U.S. has proven to be an unexpected challenge. To leave the country, they needed a passport for Greyson, which requires a birth certificate. However, the local registry office, called a cartorio, refused to issue one because the passports for Chris and Cheri Phillips do not have the names of their parents on them, which is required in Brazil, they said.

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Cheri and Chris Phillips with their newborn son Greyson Phillips following his premature birth in Brazil. (Chris Phillips)

Loved ones back in Minnesota sent the couple their individual birth certificates containing their parents’ names and their marriage license. A court translator said the documents would still be denied because they lack an apostille, a little-known provision that certifies a document to be recognized by member nations of the 1961 Hague Convention, Chris Phillips said. 

As their plight caught the attention of the Brazilian media, the cartorio “had a change of heart” and issued Greyson’s birth certificate. The agency blamed the holdup on an employee who refused to comply with the request, Chris Phillips said over the weekend. 

“No acknowledgement of wrongdoing. No admission of ignorance regarding a law of which they should have been fully aware,” he said in a statement. “No apology for the 2+ months of unnecessary stress and mental anguish they had caused for Cheri and me.”

“Supposedly, as we were told by somebody here, Brazil had passed a law in 2023 that excludes foreigners from needing to present official documents with apostles that contain a child’s grandparents’ names in order to process their Brazilian birth certificate,” he said in a statement.  

Getting American documentation was equally difficult. Getting the proper paperwork required Greyson’s birth certificate and a trip to a U.S. consulate or embassy. The nearest facility is some 300 miles away in an area that has been heavily impacted by flooding. 

Additionally, the newborn doesn’t fit in a car seat, so driving was out of the question, Chris Phillips said. The couple contracted a local lawyer, but the court process has been slowed to a halt, likening the infant to a child without a country, they said. 

“He (Greyson) does not exist officially on paper yet in any system,” Chris Phillips said last week. “He has not officially been registered as they say in Brazil.”

The couple also reached out to Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., for help to cut some of the red tape.

“He (Greyson) does not exist officially on paper yet in any system.” 

— Chris Phillips

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Cheri Phillips seen being discharged from a Brazilian hospital after giving birth to Greyson Phillips. (Chris Phillips)

“I can only imagine the incredible stress that this family has had to endure, both in giving birth unexpectedly in Brazil and then having to overcome bureaucratic hurdles to come home,” Smith said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “After calling on the Embassy in Brasilia to do more to help the family, we received the news that they will provide extra service to ensure the family does not have to travel to get a U.S. passport.”

As of Sunday, the couple was working with the U.S. Embassy in Brasilia to produce a passport for the son.

“We will not begin to feel truly comfortable until we have that passport in hand. To be clear, we still have a long road ahead of us. But, at long last, at least we can see it,” Chris said. 

Aside from the stress of trying to navigate Brazil’s legal system, the Phillips have had to deal with the mental and financial ramifications of their predicament.

“I don’t speak Portuguese and not a lot of people here speak English,” said Cheri Phillips, a first-time mother. “It’s incredibly taxing to go through childbirth and having a child in the hospital when you can’t directly talk to their care team.”

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Greyson Phillips sits in a crib at the Brazilian hospital, left, and is with his mother, Cheri Phillips. (Chris Phillips)

The family has had to stay in several Airbnb properties, forcing them to move each time their reservation ends. Additionally, they have had to extend the contract for their rental car and adjust their flight home, which can come with significant costs. Their health insurance provider has so far covered their medical expense claims, Chris Phillips said. 

Chris, a photographer and video producer for a pediatric health provider, has been working remotely, and Cheri will return to work virtually on a part-time basis next week.

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“Getting him home, that’s the goal now,” he said. “By birth, he’s is a Brazilian citizen. Being born to Americans, he has a right to be an American citizen, which he will be.”

“By birth, he’s is a Brazilian citizen. Being born to Americans, he has a right to be an American citizen, which he will be.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to the Brazilian Embassy in Washington, D.C., for comment.