Marie-Philip Poulin scored the overtime winner as the Montreal Victoire defeated the Minnesota Frost 2–1 Wednesday night at Grand Casino Arena, handing Minnesota its second straight OT loss to Montreal this season.
by Robert Brent, Let’s Play Hockey
The Minnesota Frost opened a three-game homestand Wednesday night, welcoming the Montréal Victoire to St. Paul.
The string of games will be the Frost’s longest stretch of consecutive home games of the season, with the team taking on Montréal, New York and Vancouver before the Olympic break.
Montréal vs Minnesota represents the PWHL’s battle of the unstoppable force facing the immovable object, as the Frost leads the league in goals scored (37). At the same time, Montréal is the stingiest team in the league with just 19 goals allowed.
The two teams have played once this season, with Montréal skating away with a 3-2 overtime victory in Laval earlier this month. The Frost (21 points) and Victoire (19) also stand just two points away from each other in the standings, making Wednesday’s matchup crucial to the Frost’s place in the standings.
Minnesota Frost forward Grace Zumwinkle spoke before the game about the importance of the matchup and how it could affect their season going forward.
“We’re looking forward to another home game against Montréal. We had a close-fought game last time we played against them, falling short with an OT loss,” Zumwinkle said. “Now we want to focus on continuing to build on our key habits and momentum starting at the drop of the puck.”
Recap
Nicole Hensley started in net for the Frost, making her seventh start of an excellent season that’s seen her go 5-0-1-0 with a .949 save percentage. Meanwhile, The Frost had the tall task of solving Ann-Renée Desbiens in net for Montréal. Desbiens is one of the best goaltenders in the world, registering a .950 save percentage this season.
Desbiens’ excellence was needed early for Montréal, with the Frost generating the first four shots on goal of the game. Kendall Cooper, Grace Zumwinkle, Brooke Becker and Abby Hustler all manufactured chances, but couldn’t beat the Victoire’s netminder.
From there, both goalies held firm in a relatively even game. Minnesota outshot Montréal 9-7 in a scoreless first period.
The second period played out much like the first in the early going, with both teams generating chances but neither being able to solve the opposing goaltender. Minnesota appeared to come close when Desbiens lost her stick on a scramble in front of the net, but she made a glove save to stop the play and keep the game scoreless.
Montréal got their best chance to score in the game with 11:07 remaining in the second period when they went to the power play for the first special teams opportunity of the game.
The Victoire produced some high-quality chances early in the extra-attacking chance, including a shot from Marie-Philip Poulin from her preferred shooting spot on the flank. Despite the chances, Minnesota and Nicole Hensley stood firm to keep the scoreless tie.
Montréal finally broke the deadlock at the end of the first period when a sharp-angle shot from Maureen Murphy trickled through Hensley for Murphy’s first goal of the season. The tally came at 18:29 of the second period to put the pressure on the Frost heading into the third frame.
The third period proceeded as the two before it had, with both teams playing a tight-checking, clean game. Montréal’s power play in the second period was the only penalty called up to this point in the game, and that trend would hold until the final buzzer.
Just as it appeared Montréal was cruising to a shutout victory, Minnesota finally found the back of the net when Kelly Pannek scored on a wide-open net following a net front scramble. The opportunity was created with the Frost pulling their goaltender. Kendall Coyne Schofield and Taylor Heise added assists on the play to tie the game with just 1:02 remaining.
Marie-Philip Poulin scored on a wicked backhander relatively soon after overtime began to give Montréal their second-straight OT winner against the Frost, both coming from Marie-Philip Poulin.
Key Takeaways
Power Outage in St. Paul
The central theme of the Frost’s season so far has been their ability to win games by generating offense. Coming into the match against Montréal, they led the league in goals and were 5-1-0-0 when scoring three or more goals.
While Wednesday night’s matchup had the potential to be an offensive showcase, Minnesota and Montréal combined to ice six players averaging a point per game, and it ended up being a goaltenders’ duel.
Nicole Hensley played an excellent game for the Frost, but was unable to outduel Ann-Renée Desbiens. With the loss, the Frost’s record when they score less than three goals fell to 0-1-3-3 when scoring less than three goals.
If the Frost are hoping to take advantage of the next few games at home, it looks like they’ll have to do it by putting the puck in the net.
Montréal Still Has Frost’s Number
With Montréal’s victory in Wednesday night’s matchup, the Victoire extended their win streak over the Minnesota Frost to four games dating back to the 2024-25 season.
While Minnesota hasn’t beaten Montréal since February 18th of 2025, the games have all been incredibly close. On March 4th of 2025, the Victoire defeated the Frost 2-1 in a shootout before beating them 4-1 later that month. This season, both games have been decided by just one goal.
Minnesota and Montréal games are all played very evenly, but Montréal seems to have the Frost’s number in close games. Part of that equation may be that Montréal is very experienced in close games. Wednesday night’s matchup was the Victoire’s eighth straight game decided by just one goal.
Montréal and Minnesota have yet to play each other in the postseason, but if their recent games are any indication, a series between the two teams could produce fireworks. For now, Montréal is getting the better of the exchange.
Penalty Kill Maintains Streak
Despite Minnesota’s loss, there were a few positives to glean from the matchup. Kelly Pannek continued her excellent season and was able to salvage a point in the standings with her game-tying goal. The Frost penalty kill was also once again successful when forced to take the ice.
While it was just one opportunity for Montréal with the extra attacker, Minnesota’s penalty kill has been rounding into shape in recent games in a very encouraging way.
Minnesota still has the worst penalty kill percentage in the league (74.1%), but has not been scored on with an extra attacker since their January 3rd matchup with the Ottawa Charge. During that time, they’ve successfully killed off five straight penalty kills and are eight for their last nine.
The team’s penalty kill has been one of their weak points this season. If they can continue to stay out of the box as they have in recent games and successfully defend when they are in it, it could go a long way toward the standings at the end of the season.
