“Because I didn’t see her come off the ice,” Heise said. “I hopped the bench, and Grace (Zumwinkle) is great with puck possession. She came around, dished it to me up high. I kind of gave a shot fake, was hoping I’d get someone to bite.”

Heise took her shot, with teammate Brooke McQuigge screening the goaltender, and ended up with the winning goal with four minutes left in overtime. She picked a perfect time to score her first goal of the playoffs, helping to secure a 4-3 Frost victory over Toronto in front of 3,107 fans Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center.

Minnesota won the series and advances to the Walter Cup Finals.

The goal celebration brought Taylor Heise to her knees after scoring her first goal of the playoffs with four minutes left in overtime against Toronto on Wednesday night. Britta Curl-Salemme skates over to greet her. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Heise celebrated her winning goal by throwing her arms in the air, then a quick pound on the glass before dropping to her knees and coasting toward center ice as her Frost teammates poured off the bench for the celebratory mob.

“I don’t really know what I was doing, to be honest with you,” Heise said. “Obviously the relief of how hard we worked. In an elimination game, it’s really hard to end a team’s season, especially one that’s been doing so well.”

Her goal means Minnesota will have a shot to repeat as Walter Cup Champions. After dropping Game 1 in Toronto, the Frost won the next three games in the best-of-five series to give them a 3-1 series victory and reach the Walter Cup Finals in back-to-back seasons. Last year’s runner-up, the Boston Fleet, didn’t make the playoffs this year.

“It’s just a testament to the group,” said Minnesota coach Ken Klee. “We have a young group, but we also have a veteran group.”

The Frost await the winner of the Ottawa/Montreal series. As the lowest seed, Minnesota will start the Finals on the road.

Though this semifinal series didn’t go the distance like last year, Minnesota once again upset higher-seed Toronto in the PWHL semifinals. Last year, No. 4 Minnesota overcame a 0-2 series deficit to beat top-seed Toronto.

Winners on home ice
Wednesday, the Frost capitalized on a chance to clinch a series on home ice for the first time. Minnesota, which is now 3-0 in playoff series with a 9-5 record, won two Game 5s on the road last season. The Frost won Game 4 in overtime, sticking to its pattern; both Game 4s for Minnesota last season needed double overtime to decide a winner.

The Frost also trailed all night until Heise’s series-clinching goal. Toronto took a 2-0 lead about halfway through the second period in a game that started out with very few shots on goal. The Frost weren’t as sharp as they have been, making a few uncharacteristic mistakes, Klee said.

The Minnesota Frost are 2-for-2 in making the Walter Cup Finals. They beat Toronto in the semifinals in 2024 and 2025 to get there. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“But at the end of the day, found a way to win,” Klee said. “That’s the biggest thing. Playoffs, you’ve got to find ways to win every night. And a big credit to our squad for doing that.”

The Frost squad got contributions from some of their leaders on the top two lines, too. Kendall Coyne Schofield scored a pair of momentum-swinging goals, including the tying goal that helped send the game to overtime.

That 2-0 lead didn’t last long for the Sceptres. Just 14 seconds, in fact. It was a shot from Heise through traffic, one of her game-high six shots on goal in the game, and it was initially announced as her goal before it was later changed to Coyne Schofield’s first tally of the playoffs, as she was parked in front of the net and deflected the puck.

The Frost weren’t done, tying the game with 1 minute, 12 seconds left in the second period as Kelly Pannek tipped down a McQuigge shot in front of the crease for her first goal of the playoffs.

Toronto was back in front by a goal just 58 seconds into the third period on a shot from Emma Maltais. But Coyne Schofield had a great backdoor effort on a rebound to tie the game 3-3 with 8:33 remaining in regulation.

“I don’t think we were quite as happy with our first and second (periods),” Heise said. “Obviously when you get scored on first, it’s hard. But I think for us, we came back with a vengeance and a fire in the second and the third.”

Kendall Coyne Schofield had her first career playoff multi-goal game with a pair of goals for the Frost in Game 4. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Frost kept the environment loose in the locker room at intermission following the end of regulation. The mentality was “’someone put the puck in the net; we don’t care who it is,’” Heise said.

“Just keeping it light and realizing we’re here for a reason, and we love the game,” Heise said. “That’s why it’s fun, is when we go out there and have fun, you can tell it’s a better game.”

In overtime, Toronto pressured and had scoring chances as it looked to extend its season. Though they led throughout, Renata Fast said she never felt like the game slipped away.

“I thought it was a tight game that whole way through,” Fast said. “Even when we were up 2-0, it was still a tight game. I thought we competed hard the entire game and had our looks and had our chances.

“It just didn’t go our way.”

Despite recording six shots on goal, one off her season-high, Heise said she also probably missed the net three times leading up to the eventual winner. She was fueled by the belief her teammates had in her when she returned to the bench.

“I had three or four people tapping me on the back saying, ‘you got this, you practice for this, you do all the things that you do, get out there and shoot the puck with pride and focus,’” Heise said. “I think the last one, just waited it out a little bit.”

Goalie swaps and scoring depth
Both teams switched starters in net from Game 3 to Game 4. Nicole Hensley, who made 34 saves in the Game 1 loss, tapped in for Maddie Rooney, who won two games but gave up five goals on 23 shots in Game 3. Though they’ve been a tandem, Toronto also swapped in Carly Jackson (CJ) for Kristen Campbell, who allowed 12 goals on 49 shots over games 2 and 3.

“Putting CJ in goal for that game is, to some extent, potentially putting her in a real tough situation,” said Toronto coach Troy Ryan. “I thought CJ really answered the call and gave us an opportunity to win.”

Nicole Hensley makes a sprawling pad save to keep the game alive. She made 26 saves in the victory Wednesday. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Wednesday, Hensley stopped 26 shots and Jackson made 22 saves in her second career PWHL game. This game also was the first in PWHL history without any penalties called, so the goaltenders didn’t have to face the opponent’s potent power play.

No matter who’s in the net, the Frost continued to show their scoring depth in the series. In four games, Minnesota had 11 players score at least one goal and 15 players with at least one point. Heise leads the Frost with seven points in the playoffs, including a team-high six assists. Michela Cava scored three goals and five points; she also forced a turnover that led to the Frost’s first goal Wednesday. Coyne Schofield recorded four points in the series.

Three of the top-10 Frost scoring leaders are on the blue line, too. Lee Stecklein had her five-game point streak snapped when she didn’t get on the scoresheet in Game 4, but she’s been the hottest player at the end of the regular season and the playoffs, scoring three goals and three assists in the series. Sophie Jaques also hasn’t been shy about sending the puck toward the net or setting up her teammates. She assisted on the last tying and winning goals Wednesday, bringing her scoring numbers to four assists along with her two goals. It was also her third-straight multi-point game, a new career-high.

Jaques’ D partner, Mellissa Channell-Watkins, also had an assist in Game 4, bringing her point streak to three games with a goal and three assists.

Minnesota Frost forward Brooke McQuigge reacts with a smile after seeing Taylor Heise’s shot get past Toronto goaltender Carly Jackson in overtime. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“I think it took everybody tonight, as it did this entire series,” Coyne Schofield said. “And that’s what it’s going to take moving forward.”

The Frost will enjoy a few extra days of rest at home before hitting the road again for the Finals. Should Toronto have prevailed in Game 4, the Frost were set to head back to Toronto at 7 a.m. Thursday for the winner-take-all Game 5.

There’s certainly relief that it wasn’t necessary.

“We’ve been on the road quite a bit this season,” Coyne Schofield said. “So, I think just that mental reset as much as a physical reset to be here for a couple days is going to help us.

“Our mindset, we can’t relax, we can’t let off the gas. We’re still in playoff mode. But to take advantage of this time that we’ve earned and to reset and refocus and wait to see what’s next.”

What’s next, Minnesota hopes, is winning another Walter Cup Championship.

Gallery: PWHL Semifinals Game 4, Sceptres vs. Frost

The post Winning Frost Warning appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

After dropping Game 1 in the PWHL semifinals to the Toronto Sceptres 3-2, the Frost won Games 2 and 3 behind a barrage of goal scoring, winning 5-3 and then 7-5 in front of an announced crowd of 3,917 fans Sunday evening at Xcel Energy Center.

That Game 3 final score is more common to see in a tennis set rather than a typical low-scoring playoff hockey game.

“I think it’s a fan’s dream and a coach’s nightmare, a 7-5 playoff game,” said Frost coach Ken Klee. “But you know what? We found a way to win, and that’s the most important thing.”

Frost coach Ken Klee said he hadn’t “really been apart of a game like that before,” of Sunday’s Game 3 with a 7-5 final score, in favor of Minnesota. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Indeed, the victory puts the Frost in a good position, up 2-1 in the best-of-five series. The teams will meet for Game 4 at 6 p.m. Wednesday in St. Paul, with the Frost having an opportunity to close out the series by upsetting Toronto for a second consecutive year.

The Frost, which struggled to score goals at times down the stretch, have pumped in 25 goals over their last five games since they were shut out 2-0 by last-place New York in the Frost’s last regular-season home game on April 27. That offensive production has helped Minnesota win four of their last five games, including two must-wins on the road to help make the playoffs, followed by back-to-back wins against Toronto, the second-place team in the six-team PWHL standings.

Highest-scoring PWHL game ever
Their latest offensive outburst turned into a race to the finish as Toronto and Minnesota were part of the highest-scoring game in PWHL history in Game 3. Minnesota got out to a quick 3-0 lead by the 7:48 mark of the first period, before Toronto even had a shot on goal, causing Toronto coach Troy Ryan to call timeout and settle things down.

Frost fourth-line center Liz Schepers got in alone with goaltender Kristen Campbell and didn’t miss, scoring just 2 minutes, 33 seconds into the game. Schepers had just two goals in 27 games in the regular season, but she was also a catalyst for Minnesota’s playoff run last year, scoring a goal and four assists in 10 playoff games. “Playoff Liz,” as teammate Michela Cava called her.

Frost forward Liz Schepers skates in alone toward the Toronto goal before scoring the first goal of the game in Sunday’s first period of Game 3. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Klee praised Schepers’ great habits, adding that she does a lot of things well but “doesn’t always get rewarded for it.”

“I think any time you get to the postseason, you want to turn it up a notch,” Schepers said. “Our whole team has done a really great job of that. Obviously, we came in, it felt like our playoffs started with three games left in the regular season, and we continually got better and dialed it up a little bit more.

“So, it’s great to contribute, and it takes everybody to win at this time of year. Happy to be a part of that.”

After Schepers got the scoring started Sunday, rookie Brooke McQuigge scored the first of her two goals for a 2-0 lead, and then the Frost’s hottest-scoring player lately, defender Lee Stecklein, scored her third goal of the playoffs for her sixth goal in her last five PWHL games. Stecklein scored her three regular-season goals in the last two games of the season.

Depth shows on the scoresheet
Though the Frost led the entire game, Toronto kept pace and got within a goal twice, trailing 3-2 and 5-4. But then Cava, who’s won four consecutive hockey championships in four different leagues, scored back-to-back goals two minutes apart in the third period to help put the lead out of reach. The Sceptres gave Cava plenty of space to walk through the slot and fire a backhander into the net, while her second tally was a power-play goal on the backdoor on a feed from Stecklein.

The Frost went 2-for-4 on the power play Sunday and scored seven goals on 24 shots. Toronto scored its five goals on 23 shots against goalie Maddie Rooney. Not a lot of shots on net, but still a high-scoring game.

“Some broken plays,” Ryan said. “A lot of people directed pucks to the net and getting sticks on them. I think on both sides, I think both goaltenders would probably like a couple of them back.”

Brooke McQuigge fought through Toronto players in front to score one of her two goals in Game 3. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

A total of 21 players had points in the game, with 11 registering multi-point efforts. Defender Sophie Jaques had a goal and assist for the second consecutive game, while blue-liner Mellissa Channell-Watkins had two assists. Kendall Coyne Schofield had a game-high 5 shots on goal along with two assists. Taylor Heise had three assists, including a great drop-pass to Stecklein on her goal. For the Sceptres, Blayre Turnbull, Kali Flanagan and Daryl Watts each had a goal and an assist.

“I think obviously it was a good offensive game for both teams,” Cava said. “I think it’s just about cleaning up little things.

“We all know that five goals against is not the way we wanted the game to go. I think we’ll really clean that up and just continue to score goals.”

Floodgates open for Frost, on similar path to last year
Ever since getting shut out a couple of weeks ago, scoring goals hasn’t been a problem for Minnesota. First, it was a 3-0 victory in Ottawa. Then, the Frost showed up for its highest-scoring game of the season, netting eight goals in Boston for a 8-1 win that helped secure the final playoff spot.

They’ve gotten scoring from multiple forward lines and defensive pairings. It’s that depth that is one of their strengths, Klee said.

“We try to rely on it when we need to,” Klee said. “We’re trying to be the best team. We’re not trying to be the best player or individual. It’s something we kind of preach from day one. And we know it worked for us last year, so we’re trying as best as we can to keep it going.”

Michela Cava scored the last two Frost goals of the game, which turned out to be the game-winners. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Frost have followed a similar path to last year’s run to the postseason and playoff series, even though the team acknowledges this is not the way they’d like to draw it up. In 2024, Minnesota lost its final five regulation-season games, got help to make the playoffs as the 4-seed, then were shut out twice in Toronto before getting a reverse sweep. Then they beat Boston in five games to win the Walter Cup.

This season, the Frost returned from the international break in late April needing points and wins to make the playoffs. Goal scoring was tougher to come by. But they’ve come up clutch when it matters most. Minnesota has a belief and confidence within its locker room, no matter how difficult the road to victory may seem. That’s a theme carried over from last season.

“I just think the experience we have in this room from last year, from previous teams we’re all coming from, we’ve had a lot of success and fortunate to lean on that,” Schepers said. “Our leaders do a great job of keeping everybody focused on the main thing, which is playing our brand of hockey. Because we see the success that we have when we do that.”

Added Cava: “We play and we don’t quit. We knew during the season that we were really fast and a really skilled team. Obviously, we lost that a few times throughout the year. But going into the playoffs and those last two games, we knew that we had another level. And you could really see everybody just embrace that and just play with the physicality that other teams don’t want to play with.”

Lee Stecklein (left) and Taylor Heise (middle) skate back toward the Frost bench to celebrate Stecklein’s goal which made it a 3-0 game early in the first period on Sunday. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Turning to Game 4, Klee said he expects Toronto’s best game as the Sceptres try to keep their season alive. Minnesota will attempt to end a playoff series before reaching the winner-take-all Game 5. But even when their backs are against the wall, the Frost find a way. Going back to last season’s playoffs, Minnesota is 6-0 in must-win, elimination games.

It’ll be about keeping the spirits high on the bench, Cava said, with Schepers adding that it’s also important to not get too high with the highs or too low with the lows.

“This league is too good,” Schepers said. “All the teams are too tight to think you’re in the clear in any way. So, keeping our foot on the gas for sure going into this elimination game, we know it’s going to be the toughest one.”

Gallery: PWHL Semifinals Game 3, Sceptres vs. Frost

The post Icy Hot appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Frost returned from the multi-week international break for the IIHF Women’s World Championship by falling 2-0 to the New York Sirens on Sunday in front of 6,472 fans for Fan Appreciation Day at Xcel Energy Center. They outshot the Sirens 33-21 but still couldn’t find a way to put the puck in the net.

“We’ve got to score, and we just didn’t do that today,” said Frost forward Taylor Heise.

The result has the Frost in danger of missing the playoffs and not getting a shot to defend its Walter Cup Championship. The way they ended up with the result wasn’t necessarily new for the Frost this season. It’s not the first game where the Frost have generated chances but had trouble finishing plays to score goals.

“It’s tough,” said Frost coach Ken Klee. “We had a great first period, and we had 20 shots. We probably had 30 attempts. You look at our shot attempts today, they were outrageous how many good looks we had.

“We’ve just got to find a way to bank one in, put one in, you know, hit off someone’s shin pad, do something. Today we couldn’t find the back of the net.”

Frost forward Liz Schepers gets sandwiched in between Sirens goaltender Corinne Schroeder and defender Micah Zandee-Hart on Sunday, April 27, 2025. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Credit goes to New York goaltender, Corinne Schroeder, who made 33 saves for back-to-back shutouts riding a 128:33 scoreless streak. Klee noted how Schroeder “gobbled up rebounds when they were lying around.”

“It was tight, but we’ve got to find a way to score a goal. We just have to. We practiced hard the last few days, and we looked sharp and we were scoring goals in practice like crazy.”

Scoring goals in games has been another story for the Frost, at times, and it’s led to a similar late-season stumble.

Late-season, goal-scoring struggles
It was well-documented how Minnesota struggled down the stretch last season, going 0-5 after the international break and backing into a playoff spot at the last minute. The Frost have faltered in the latter part of this season, too. They’re 2-1-1-5 (W-OTW-OTL-L) in their last nine games (since Feb. 23); that’s five regulation losses, including a three-game losing streak sandwiched in the middle while the Frost earned just nine points in the standings over those nine games. It’s three points for a regulation win, two points for overtime/shootout wins and one point for an overtime/shootout loss.

It’s put the Frost into a situation where they need to win their final two regular-season games, plus get a little help, if they’re going to make the playoffs. It’s a similar spot to the inaugural season for the defending Walter Cup Champions.

“We would love to not be in that position,” Heise said. “Maybe next year we’ll find a way to not do that.”

Goal scoring has been a big culprit. The Frost scored only four total goals during the three-game losing skid from March 11-26. They’ve scored 18 total goals in the last nine games, scoring more than two goals in a game just twice with a pair of five-goal efforts.

For the season, the Frost have scored one goal or been shutout in seven games – with five of those seven coming in the last nine games. Not surprisingly when scoring just once, or not at all, the Frost are 0-0-1-6. Klee was asked about his team scoring just one goal after a 4-1 loss to Montreal on March 26.

Frost defender Sophie Jaques winds up for one of her four shots on goal against New York during the April 27, 2025 game. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“It’s tough,” Klee said. “We’re trying to score more than one, that’s for sure. These guys are playing their hearts out and trying to get pucks to the net. We have to find a way. Just find a way to get it done.

“At the end of the day it’s about points. We’ve got to figure out how to score some points.”

Unfortunately for the Frost, they have not been able to figure it out consistently enough over the final third of its schedule.

Just two regulation wins in the last nine games is quite the contrast to how the Frost started the season, when they rattled off wins and found themselves near the top of the PWHL standings. Minnesota had a good December, going 3-1-1-1 and scoring 22 goals across their first six games. The success continued into early January, pushing their record to 4-3-1-2 with 32 goals scored in the first 10 games, or the first third of the season. The Frost scored four-or-more goals five times in 10 games to start the 2024-25 season.

Finishing their chances was something the Frost were doing more of early on. After a 5-2 win over Ottawa on Dec. 19, Klee said his team was playing the right way and generating chances.

“It’s just about finishing,” Klee said after that game. “I think that’s something we’ve been making an emphasis on in practice, and all summer. How do we figure out ways to score more goals?”

Frost rookie forward Brooke McQuigge saw her six-game point streak come to an end with the 2-0 loss to New York on April 27. Her streak was one shy of the PWHL record. McQuigge scored two goals and five assists during those six games. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

The Frost are again close to thinking about that same concept over a summer that could start sooner rather than later.

Outside looking in
They have two road games remaining in the regular season. They face Ottawa on Wednesday night and then play in Boston on Saturday. All three teams are still competing for the final two playoff spots available; Montreal and Toronto have clinched, while sixth-place New York is out.

Headed into this week with two games left for all six teams, the Frost need to win both of their games, with at least one win in regulation (three points). They also need help from other teams. The Frost have 38 points in fifth place. As of Tuesday afternoon, they’re four points behind the fourth-place Ottawa Charge, which can clinch its spot with at least one point against the Frost on Wednesday. Boston is in third with 44 points and one game remaining, against Minnesota.

Taylor Heise has eight goals and 21 points in 27 games this season compared to four goals and 13 points in 19 games during the 2024 regular season as a PWHL rookie. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

After Sunday’s game, the Frost weren’t looking to make any big adjustments to their game to try make up for the lack of goal scoring. They were happy with their chances and shots-on-goal margin.

“Obviously it didn’t work tonight, but we just have to believe it’s going in,” said defender Lee Stecklein. “And that’s sometimes half the battle.

“We just have to stick to what we’re doing and stick to what we know we can do.”

Anytime his team starts a game by putting close to 20 shots on goal in a period, Klee said he likes their chances. Regardless of the latest outcome against New York, he added that the Frost were still going to need a win in Ottawa, then repeat the same effort in Boston this week.

“Really, our mindset doesn’t change,” Klee said. “It takes it out of our hands a little bit. We need a little help now.

“Still, we’ve got to go in, same thing. We’ve got to win games.”

Gallery: Sirens vs. Frost

The post Frosty Finish appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

While the Victoire celebrated a victory, the Frost were left to lament a season-long, three-game losing streak in regulation, with one game left before the multi-week international break in April.

The loss also came in the middle of a stretch in which the Frost goal scoring had dried up. Across a seven-game period ending with the loss to Montreal on March 26, the Frost scored 13 goals, with five of those coming in a 5-0 victory over Ottawa on March 7. The Frost scored only one goal a game in four of the seven contests, and they had a record of 1-1-1-4 (W-OTW-OTL-L).

“It’s tough,” said Frost coach Ken Klee. “We’re trying to score more than one, that’s for sure. These guys are playing their hearts out and trying to get pucks to the net. We have to find a way. Just find a way to get it done.”

Update: The Frost found a way.

The goal-scoring floodgates opened right from puck drop of the Frost’s game against the Toronto Sceptres on Sunday. First, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Taylor Heise combined for a two-on-one goal off the rush just 1 minute, 1 second into the game for a 1-0 lead. It was Heise’s seventh goal of the season.

Britta Curl-Salemme is left alone in front, and she puts the puck in the net for a 2-0 Frost lead less than two minutes into the game against Toronto. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Before two minutes of game time elapsed, the Frost doubled their lead with a rebound goal from Britta Curl-Salemme. Those first two tallies were record-setting goals as the fastest two goals to open a game by a team in PWHL history, coming in a 1:43 span.

That set the tone for an eventual 5-2 Frost victory. It helped the Frost avoid a four-game skid headed into the break, and it also prevented them from seeing another team celebrate a playoff berth on Minnesota’s home ice for the second time in a week.

Fast-start Sunday
After the game, Heise stated the obvious, that a team will do better if it scores two goals right away. But she added that the Frost came out with a lot of speed.

“Up and down the lineup, I was really impressed with the way that we just continued to hound them,” Heise said. “I think they (Toronto) did a lot of dumping and chasing, which they’re not a team that likes to do that. And then you got Nic (Nicole Hensley) back there who made 57 crazy saves. It was great.”

She exaggerates, of course. Hensley made 16 saves for her fifth win of the season. She got back in net for only the third time in March after Maddie Rooney has taken a bit of an edge in the goalie-tandem set-up this season. Hensley looked sharp early, especially on second-chance plays from Toronto. She took a shutout into the third period before Toronto made it a 4-2 game. Hensley also helped keep the league’s best power play off the board on three chances, including a 6-on-4 Toronto advantage near the end of the game with the goaltender pulled.

Maybe it was the 12 p.m. start that had the Frost so fired up, something both Heise and Hensley mentioned they like early games.

“Our team played really well in front of me and blocked a lot of shots,” Hensley said. “We obviously took some punches from them in the third. But we went right back down and showed what we can do. So, I think that last goal was huge to just make sure we got the job done.”

Taylor Heise skates in to celebrate the 5-2 victory with Frost goaltender Nicole Hensley. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

That last goal, to make it 5-2 with about six minutes left, was Heise’s second of the game. Before that, it was truly a team effort for the Frost. Twelve different players registered a point as the team grabbed a 4-0 lead by the second intermission. Sophie Jaques and Liz Schepers, with her second goal of the season, scored in the second period.

Michela Cava assisted on both of Heise’s goals, plus rookie Brooke McQuigge extended her point streak to a league-best six games with two more assists. McQuigge has two goals and five assists in her last six games.

Seeing this performance from the Frost compared to the goal-starved efforts recently put everyone from the Frost in a better mood after the game. It was the kind of game Klee was hoping to see from his team.

“We had a lot of jump, a lot of jam to our game,” Klee said. “We were fast, we were first on pucks. When we do those things, we’re simple with the puck, we’re a tough team to handle.

“All four lines scored tonight, which is great. All four lines created lots of chances. They were good in their own zone.”

Frost get a much-needed win – and points – before the break
The victory was a sigh of relief and a step back on the right track, but the Frost also know there’s still work to be done. They were briefly in fifth place over the weekend, with an Ottawa win that put the Charge one point ahead of the Frost. Minnesota got back into the playoff picture with its three points against Toronto. They have three games remaining, starting with their regular-season home finale on against New York on April 26, followed by two road games at Ottawa on April 30 and Boston on May 3.

The Frost also don’t want to see some of the history from a year ago repeat itself. Last season, Minnesota had all the momentum in the world with a 5-0 record in March before the international break. They came back and lost five consecutive games in the regular season, barely squeezing into the playoffs.

“We don’t want to put ourselves in a spot like we did last year,” Heise said.

Frost forward Grace Zumwinkle was all smiles as her team led from the drop of the puck against Toronto on Sunday. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Frost forward Grace Zumwinkle said after the loss to Montreal that there’s belief in the Frost locker room, something Minnesota players also preached in the middle of the late-season losing streak last year.

“I think we all understand that the last few games isn’t our best, and it’s not acceptable,” Zumwinkle said on March 26. “I think when you show up to practice, you have to bring that mojo and swagger and act like you are scoring goals. I think even if you aren’t, you still have to act that way.

“I think that’s something that’s going to be a point of emphasis for us, and hopefully we can show that on Sunday.”

The Frost certainly found the mojo, swagger, the good vibes, whatever it may be on Sunday. Klee also acknowledged that he’s going to enjoy the break – for the IIHF Women’s World Championships – a lot better after their win on Sunday.

Regardless of Heise’s personal scoresheet stats, she was most excited for the team to get a win and a mental boost.

“When you go into a three-week break, my dad tells me this all the time: ‘You can either win and not have to think about it, or lose and not have to think about it every single day for three weeks,’” Heise said. “So, I’m glad that we get to not think about it.”

The post Frost Thaws Scoring Drought appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

The Frost have 10 points and a .833 winning percentage through four games this season. Here are five rules from the team’s first home victory – in its second opportunity – of the season:

The Minnesota Frost players celebrate one of their five goals scored against Ottawa on Dec. 19 at Xcel Energy Center. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

1. Kelly Pannek scores a pair of goals, just misses the ‘Grace Zumwinkle hat trick.’
Ottawa (1-0-1-3) had a 1-0 lead after scoring about eight minutes into the game. Anna Meixner tipped a Jincy Roese shot while Shiann Darkangelo provided the screen in front of Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney. But about three minutes later, Kelly Pannek tied the game and made sure the Frost never trailed again.

Pannek took the puck behind the Ottawa net, came out front and flicked a backhand shot that fluttered into the net to get the Frost on the board in the game and Pannek into the goal column for the season.

“It found one of the defender’s sticks, and I think ramped up and over,” Pannek said. “I think any time that happens, it’s hard for a goaltender to adjust to it.”

Early in the second period, Pannek doubled the total with a power-play goal. She took a pass from Kendall Coyne Schofield and then skated through neutral ice. She didn’t stop until she popped a laser of a shot past goaltender Gwyneth Philips for the 2-1 lead. Pannek scored four goals all of last season but now has two in the fourth game of 2024-25.

This season, Pannek said she’s trying to put herself in good positions and tried to get better at putting the puck on net.

“I tend to look for a pass first,” Pannek said. “Just trying to get myself in good spots to be a threat at the net.”
Ottawa went with an empty net with about three-and-a-half minutes to play in regulation. A little more than a minute later, Pannek tried to complete the hat trick with a shot the length of the ice, from Minnesota’s goal line. But the puck hit the outside of the post along the ice and slid just wide.

“Yeah, I was going for the Grace Zumwinkle hat trick,” Pannek said. “6-on-5 empty netter.”

Pannek was referring to when Zumwinkle scored all three goals – including an empty-netter – in Minnesota’s opener last season, a 3-0 victory over Montreal. Thursday night, it was Zumwinkle who later sealed the game with an empty-net goal with 1 minute, 41 seconds left in regulation.

“She said she was going to wait for me, but I was not coming anywhere close to catching up with her,” Pannek said. “I’m glad she finished that one.”

Claire Thompson winds up for a shot. She scored a goal and had three assists in the game against Ottawa. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

2. Claire Thompson scores her first PWHL goal and recorded a 4-point night.
Minnesota’s first-round pick in the 2024 PWHL Draft (third overall), defender Claire Thompson, not only scored her first PWHL goal Thursday, but she factored into four of the five Frost tallies. Thompson assisted on Pannek’s first goal and Zumwinkle’s second-period goal before scoring with about five minutes to play in regulation. Taylor Heise fed Thompson the puck off the rush, and Thompson fired a shot from the slot.

She credited the great players around her for the successful night.

“People are making good plays with the puck,” Thompson said. “So, anytime you can look to transition the puck to other people, and there’s good people on the team, good things happen.

“I think we had a lot of great net-front presence on a lot of our goals, and that’s a point of emphasis for our team.”
Thompson also made the feed up to Zumwinkle on the empty-net tally.

3. Minnesota’s power play strikes twice, marking the first time the franchise has scored multiple power-play goals in a regular-season game.
Part of the offense for the Frost – which outshot the Charge 40-24 – was a power play that went 2-for-3. It’s the first time the Frost have scored multiple power-play goals during a regular-season game. They also went 2-for-3 in Game 5 of the playoff series against Toronto, in a 4-1 victory.

Minnesota’s special teams struggled last season, going 5-for-61 (8.2%) in the regular season. It also went 2-for-26 (7.7%) in 10 playoff games, but all was seemingly forgiven when they hoisted the Walter Cup.

Through the first three games, the Frost were 1-for-7 on the power play, increasing those numbers to 3-for-10 (30%) by the end of Thursday’s game. Coach Ken Klee credited assistant coach Chris “Critter” Johnson for taking ownership of the power play and helping it to find some early success.

“Critter’s doing a good job working with them, talking to them, where they’re going to be on the ice, what situations they can be in,” Klee said. “But also, make hockey plays. He’s a big believer.”

Maddie Rooney makes the save of the game, reaching her right pad out to stop a shot from Natalie Snodgrass that would have tied the game 3-3 in the third period. (MHM Photo / Jeff Wegge)

4. Despite being outshot by a significant margin all night, Ottawa nearly tied the game 3-3 in the third period.
The Charge kept charging in the third period after being down 3-1 at the second intermission. At 5:28 of the third period, Tereza Vanišová got in alone and went forehand-to-backhand to slip a shot past Rooney and make it a one-goal game.

About 30 seconds later, Ottawa nearly tied it. Natalie Snodgrass, an Eastview grad, also was one-on-one with Rooney. But the goaltender reached her right pad out just enough to make the sprawling save. So instead of a tie game, the Frost maintained the lead and outscored Ottawa 2-0 the rest of the game.

“Massive save by a really good goalie,” said Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod. “So good on her. She fought to get her toe on it and managed to do so.

“I don’t think I was worried that that was going to sway us to the direction that it did. You would’ve thought, ‘well man, we just about scored two goals in a minute, let’s keep going here.’ Just didn’t have the pushback that we needed. We just didn’t have our game.”

5. Sophie Jaques was injured after an illegal hit.
About halfway through the third period on a Frost penalty kill, Sophie Jaques took a hip check behind the Minnesota net from Maple Grove native Mannon McMahon. Jaques went down to the ice and appeared to be in pain. She was helped off the ice by the training staff.

Officials reviewed the play for a major penalty but called a minor penalty for illegal body checking.

Klee did not have an update on her condition postgame, other than to say she’d been taken to the hospital.

“So, we’ll see how she’s doing,” Klee said. “She’ll be obviously evaluated tonight and tomorrow. And we’ll see where she’s at.”

The post Rink Rule: Charge vs. Frost appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.

PWHL Minnesota put a bow on its remarkable playoff run by defeating PWHL Boston 3-0 on Wednesday in the deciding game five of the PWHL Finals. Minnesota became the inaugural Walter Cup Champion, with captain Coyne Schofield hoisting the Cup first after the postgame celebration.

The brand-new league officially got going with training camp starting in mid-November last fall. When Coyne Schofield was asked at that time about what she hoped to accomplish this season, she was very clear.

“Win a championship,” Coyne Schofield said. “That’s the goal of any professional athlete, is to bring home a championship trophy to the city.”

Kendall Coyne Schofield is the first champion to lift the Walter Cup. (Photo courtesy of PWHL)

Accomplishment achieved.

Minnesota dominated Boston in the winner-take-all game five in Boston, outshooting them 44-17 in the game, including 19-3 in the third period. Minnesota’s play was suffocating, with no better example than just before Michela Cava’s goal in the third period for a 2-0 lead. Before she buried the wraparound tally, Minnesota skated around the offensive zone with ease, cycling the puck, passing it around and even changing out players on the fly.

Liz Schepers, who had a solid playoff run with four assists, scored her only goal of the season for a 1-0 lead in the second period. Melissa Channell also recorded three assists in the game. The final Minnesota goal of the game? That was all Coyne Schofield, using her speed to get to a loose puck and bury an empty netter with 2:06 to play in regulation. Talk about a storybook ending.

In goal, Nicole Hensley earned her second shutout of the Finals with 17 saves. In four starts in the final series, she made 87 saves on 89 shots. The goaltending tandem with Hensley and Maddie Rooney shined throughout the season but especially in the playoffs. Rooney was a big reason for their success against Toronto in the semifinals, when she put up similar stats with 92 saves on 94 shots across four starts and two shutout victories.

Minnesota coach Ken Klee rotated between the two netminders all season.

“Maddie was an absolute rock star in the first round, and Nicole got in and she started pitching shutouts,” Klee said.

A long, winding road to the championship
What’s perhaps the most intriguing about Minnesota’s championship season are all of the obstacles it overcame to reach the pinnacle. Starting from the beginning, there were rumors that this new women’s hockey league wouldn’t even place a team in Minnesota.

Even before the historic puck drop on PWHL Minnesota’s season – which was bookended with victories at Tsongas Center on Boston’s home ice – the team made a coaching change on Dec. 27. Charlie Burgraff stepped away from the position, and Klee stepped in about a week before games started. Klee had familiarity with some players, like Coyne Schofield, blue liner Lee Stecklein and Hensley, from his work on the national team, but he still had to find a quick learning curve with his new team.

Lee Stecklein added another championship to her extensive hockey resume. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

Minnesota started and ended this season well, winning their first three games in early January. They broke an attendance record (at the time) with more than 13,000 fans at Xcel Energy Center for the home opener, a 3-0 victory over Montreal which included a Grace Zumwinkle hat trick and the first of multiple shutouts this season for Rooney.

They rolled along near the top of the league, going 5-0 in March before the international break. But Minnesota could not buy a victory in the final five regular-season games. As Klee put it, they were “finding ways to lose hockey games,” even though he said they played well. But they weren’t necessarily at their best, with normally crisp passes finding skate blades instead, the offense drying up and special teams stats continuing to spiral.

Minnesota had multiple chances to clinch a playoff spot and didn’t. They needed help on the final day of the regular season to get in as the No. 4 seed. Yes, this championship team almost missed the playoffs in what would have been considered a huge collapse down the stretch.

Top-seeded Toronto waited nearly a full day to choose Minnesota as its opponent in the semifinals. So, Minnesota stayed on the road and played the first two games of the best-of-five series in Toronto, getting shut out 4-0 and 2-0 and facing a must-win game at home for game three. Their losing streak reached seven games.

From the brink of elimination to jubliation
Forget a victory; would Minnesota even score a playoff goal? But the turnaround was about to get started. It took an entire team effort from start to finish, Coyne Schofield said.

“You look at the way that we won,” Coyne Schofield said, after winning the championship. “We were almost out. And as soon as we knew we weren’t out, there were times we got down, but we were never out. And that group in there believed that we could be champions.

“We never lost sight of that.”

Minnesota evened the series with two shutouts behind Rooney, including one in double overtime. Then in game five back in Toronto, Minnesota found their offensive game again, and a 4-1 win sent them to the PWHL Finals to face 3-seed Boston.

“There were moments this year, unfortunately, especially at the end, where we were pretty down,” Stecklein said. “But we were able to pull it together. Just really proud of this group.

“Again, it wouldn’t be possible without Kendall Coyne and her leadership.”

Minnesota grabbed a series lead and thought they won the Cup in game four during double overtime. Sophie Jaques put the puck in the net late in the second OT session, sending the Minnesota team and its fans into a celebratory frenzy. But the celebration was short-lived after a review of the play determined goaltender interference as Taylor Heise slid into the crease and made contact with goalie Aerin Frankel.

A little more than a minute later, Alina Muller scored the winner for Boston, leaving Minnesota and fans stunned.

Taylor Heise was the first overall pick at the PWHL Draft last fall. She added PWHL Playoffs MVP and Walter Cup Champion to her list of accolades in her rookie season. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

“I think they robbed us in game four,” Heise said. “And we all felt that very much. So I think to have the feeling of being a champion taken from you is one of the worst things ever. I can’t say that it’s happened to me before.”

So, once Minnesota actually won the Walter Cup on Wednesday, Hensley shared the team’s celebration graphic on X with her comment: “So nice we won it twice.”

Oh, and about those special teams? Minnesota had a league-worst penalty kill (67.2%), allowing 20 goals against. But their PK was a perfect 19-for-19 in the playoffs. Quite the reversal, indeed.

Minnesota wins the Cup
Once the final buzzer sounded in game five, Minnesota players in their white jerseys with purple lettering rushed on the ice for hugs, smiles and maybe even some happy tears. The Walter Cup was presented in a similar fashion that hockey fans see with the Stanley Cup in the NHL, with music and a walk out to the ice.

Coyne Schofield hoisted the Walter Cup first, pumping it into the air with a giant smile as she skated over to her crowd of teammates. A few minutes later, she choked up during an on-ice broadcast interview, emotions that seemed to spill over to her 10-month-old son, Drew, who burst into tears as he was placed in the Cup during the team photo.

Alternate captain Stecklein was the first to get the Cup hand-off from Coyne Schofield, followed by Pannek, the other alternate captain and a Minnesota native. From there, players took turns skating with the Walter Cup: Hensley, Rooney, Sophia Kunin, Cava, Emma Greco, Channell, Denisa Krizova, Clair DeGeoge, Schepers, Natalie Buchbinder and Sydney Brodt, among others.

The other piece of business was honoring Heise, who was voted the recipient of the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award. Heise scored five goals in 10 playoff games after scoring four in 19 regular season games. Heise said “it’s awesome” that the PWHL is the only professional women’s hockey league she knows, coming right out of college.

“Not quite sure where I was going to go,” Heise said. “But this league came at an amazing time. … and I’m very honored to be a part of it.”

This championship marks the second time in five years that a Minnesota women’s professional hockey team won it all in their first season in a league. In 2018-19, the Minnesota Whitecaps won the Isobel Cup in their first year in the National Women’s Hockey League (later renamed PHF). That Whitecaps team included Coyne Schofield, Stecklein and Amanda Leveille.

Minnesota players celebrated a championship twice, this one on home ice after what turned out to be an overturned goal for goaltender interference in game four. (MHM Photo / Rick Olson)

That championship celebration happened after an overtime goal from Stecklein for a victory against the Buffalo Beauts in front of a sold-out crowd at TRIA Rink in St. Paul. Coyne Schofield, Stecklein and Leveille had another chance to celebrate a first in women’s hockey this week, too.

“There’s something very special about being the first to do something in life,” Coyne Schofield said, following game five. “And for us to be the first Walter Cup champions is something that is extremely special that will be part of this league’s legacy forever.

“I’ve been a part of a lot of teams that have won and that haven’t won. For whatever reason, you remember the teams that win.”

Klee shared a perfect example of that with his players before the final game. Klee received a text message from an old teammate, “not somebody that I talk to very often,” Klee said, with a reminder that 30 years ago to the day, Klee won the Calder Cup in the American Hockey League.

Klee told his Minnesota team ‘this is what you want.’

“It’s not about the trophy or a ring or anything like that,” Klee said. “It’s about having the connection with the people that you’re going to have 30 years from now.”

Photo galleries from the PWHL Playoffs: 

Gallery: PWHL Semifinals Game 3, Toronto vs. Minnesota
Gallery: PWHL Finals Game 3, Boston vs. Minnesota
Gallery: PWHL Finals Game 4, Boston vs. Minnesota

The post Cup Champions appeared first on Minnesota Hockey Magazine.