After struggling against New York in extra time last season, the Minnesota Frost earned a 3–2 overtime victory Friday night behind a Coyne Schofield game-winner and a two-assist performance from Taylor Heise.
The Minnesota Frost traveled to New Jersey Friday night for a clash with the New York Sirens at the Prudential Center. The Sirens are the last team the Frost needed to play before having at least one matchup with each team in the PWHL this season.
The two teams haven’t faced off this year, but Minnesota would come into the game with plenty of motivation to come away with a win. Minnesota and New York stood just one point apart in the standings coming into the matchup, with the Frost accruing 19 points throughout the campaign compared to the Sirens’ 18.
New York went 3-2-1-0 against Minnesota last year and was the only team Frost did not beat in regulation.
Forward Katy Knoll spoke before the game about the team’s excitement to play New York for the first time since the preseason and their hopes to carry over momentum from the team’s previous win against Seattle.
“I’m very excited to be back in New York. We haven’t seen them since preseason, so it’ll be exciting to see how both teams have improved and grown since November,” Knoll said. “We’re looking to keep that momentum from our last home game going here on the road and get back to close the month out at home.”
Recap
Nicole Hensley started in net for the Frost, making her first appearance since stopping 31 of 32 shots against Toronto on December 30th. Kayla Osborne took the goal crease for the Sirens, coming off a hot stretch where she recorded shutouts in two of her last three starts.
The Minnesota Frost opened the scoring in the game when Kayla Osborne left her net to deal with a Frost dump-in. She rang the puck around the boards directly to Taylor Heise, who fired a pass to Britta Curl-Salemme in front of the net. Osborne wasn’t able to get back fast enough, leaving Curl-Salemme a wide-open net for her fifth goal of the season.
The Sirens answered with 3:37 remaining in the first period when star rookie Casey O’Brien scored a breakaway goal short-handed to jailbreak the Sirens out of their short-handed situation.
The two goals were the only two markers of the first period as the teams skated to intermission tied.
The Frost wasted no time taking their lead back with a goal 36 seconds into the second period. Kelly Pannek scored her fifth goal of the season on a feed from the back of the net from Grace Zumwinkle. Pannek’s shot was initially saved by Osborne, but trickled through.
Much as they did on the first goal, the Sirens responded to Minnesota’s goal quickly. Taylor Girard netted the goal, her fifth of the season, at 4:04 of the second period.
The teams traded scoring chances for the rest of the period, but neither could break the deadlock. New York held a slight edge in shots, 17-16, with each team having two goals apiece, going into the third and final period.
Minnesota began the third period with a power-play opportunity to take the lead, but the Sirens completely stifled any attacking chances the Frost were able to mount. The extra-attacker opportunity would expire with the game still tied at 2-2.
From there, the third period devolved into a goalie duel with both teams producing some high-quality scoring chances and the two goaltenders proving up to the task. Hensley and Osborne remained strong for the remainder of regulation to send the game into overtime.
Minnesota captured victory in overtime when Kendall Coyne Schofield fired a puck home on a 2-on-1 feed from Taylor Heise. The goal gave Coyne Schofield her 14th point of the season, tying her with Britta Curl Salemme for the league lead.
Minnesota travels home to St. Paul to take on Montreal on January 21st before rematching the Sirens at home on Sunday, January 25th.
Key Takeaways
Taylor Heise Adds Another Pair of Assists
Throughout her PWHL career, Taylor Heise has been one of the Frost’s most consistent offensive forces. That fact made it a bit shocking when she started her season having trouble finding the score sheet and was held pointless in five of her first six games.
Heise’s scoring issues are far behind her at this point, roaring back over the last several games to get back on track. Heise now has 12 points in 12 games.
The primary part of the game in which Heise has excelled is her passing. She’s been using her vision and hockey IQ to be an excellent distributor this season and has tallied eight assists in her last five games.
Heise spoke at practice this week about getting her passing game back on track.
“I think I didn’t start the way I wanted to, and that happens to everyone. I think there are parts of your game that you want to be better. I don’t think I was playing badly, I just wasn’t in the right spot at the right time,” Heise said. “I think things are really clicking…Obviously I want to pass, I’m a passer at heart so I always find those spots as well.”
Illness Keeps Stecklein Out of Second-Straight Game
Stalwart defender Lee Stecklein missed her second-straight game, this time being held out due to illness. Stecklein missed the Frost’s last game with what, at the time, was reported as a lower-body injury on Minnesota’s pre-game lineup card. Maddie Rooney also missed Friday’s game with an illness.
Stecklein’s absence was once again felt by Minnesota, with one of its most crucial pieces missing from the lineup. Stecklein is a dependable defender who plays a key role for Frost on both ends of the ice. The defender is fourth in the league on time-on-ice per game, playing an average of 24:44 per contest.
While missing Stecklein for two games is definitely a negative development for Minnesota, it shouldn’t affect her game too much when she returns to the lineup. Injuries can linger for a season. When Stecklein gets a clean bill of health, she’ll likely be right back to being one of Minnesota’s best players.
Frost Flip the Script in Overtime on Sirens
While the Minnesota Frost and New York Sirens played their first game against each other this season, the two sides are no strangers to playing overtime contests against each other. Last season, the Frost and Sirens played each other six times, with three of those games needing extra time to be resolved. New York emerged victorious in all three of those overtime games.
The Frost flipped the script on New York Friday night when they defeated the Sirens in overtime. Minnesota got its win on the backs of its talented core of scorers.
The Minnesota Frost currently leads the league in goals. While they’ve gotten contributions throughout the lineup, that scoring has largely been bolstered by the play of Britta Curl-Salemme, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek and Taylor Heise. All four of the quartet are top-10 scorers in the league, while no other team has more than two players in the top 10.
On Minnesota’s three goals, Frost players registered seven points. Of those seven points, six of them belonged to Minnesota’s core group of four scorers. To win games like the one against New York, you need your best players to perform, and Minnesota got precisely that.
