No Time to Be Tired
Playoff recaps, player mindset, the schedule, Mother's Day shoutout, fan of the year, and a look at expansion.
Reminder that Frozen Friday plans to wind down after the playoffs. Thanks for playing. If you’ve enjoyed it and want to tip, you can donate to Venmo/PayPal (it goes through our day job, the West St. Paul Reader). Thanks! -Kevin D. Hendricks
Standings: The Frost are down 2-1 in the best of five series, which means they must win tonight or the season is over.
1. Game Recaps
Thursday, May 7 against the Montreal Victoire
2-1 loss
Goals: Sidney Morin had the lone Frost goal, her second of the series and only second of the season. Former Frosty Maggie Flaherty scored Montreal’s first goal.
Quick strike: Montreal scored again just 24 seconds after Flaherty’s goal to set a record for the fastest two goals by one team in PWHL playoff history.
Reaction: “It’s just one game. We’ve been here before,” said Coach Ken Klee, who liked the Frost’s chances especially in the third period where they outshot Montreal 11-1. “Tomorrow’s a new challenge.”
Tuesday, May 5 against the Montreal Victoire
1-0 3OT loss
Goals: The Frost got shutout (again!) and the lone goal was the triple-overtime winner from, who else, Marie-Philip Poulin.
Kelly Pannek: “We were in that game until we weren’t. We were in it, we had a chance to go up two in the series. It’s fun playing playoff hockey, it’s fun playing in [overtime]. That’s when tensions are high, and a goal is the difference. We weren’t on the right side of it tonight, but I was really proud of how our team played.”
OT Collapse: While playoff overtime isn’t new for the Frost—this was the seventh consecutive playoff game that went to overtime for the Frost—they mostly collapsed and spent most of each overtime period in their own end. “They hemmed us in a little bit,” said Coach Ken Klee. “We got stuck in our own zone way too long. Our shifts were too long because of it.” Montreal outshot the Frost 25-11 across the overtime periods.
Saturday, May 2 against the Montreal Victoire
5-4 OT win
Goals: Katie Knoll, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Grace Zumwinkle, Sidney Morin, and Jincy Roese all scored, with Morin and Roese getting their first goals as members of the Frost. Oh, and Montreal’s Laura Stacey got the first ever hat trick in the PWHL playoffs.
Penalties: The first and second periods were full of penalties, including a five-minute major and game misconduct for Britta Curl-Salemme—that resulted in a Montreal goal and a not-a-jailbreak goal for the Frost (major penalties don’t end when a goal is scored). Curl-Salemme was also suspended for one game, missing game two, and fined for grabbing Abby Roque’s face mask (resulting in this wicked black eye). This is the fourth time Curl has faced a game suspension and second time she’s been suspended during the playoffs, both infractions coming in game one.
Streaks: This breaks the Frost’s streak of losing game one of every playoff series.
2. Back-to-Back Schedule
With the Minnesota Wild in the playoffs, scheduling has been a challenge resulting in four games in three days, including back-to-back games in Minnesota on Thursday and Friday. Meanwhile, the Boston-Ottawa series has five days off between games two and three.
“I think it’s a challenge. I think it’s a little inappropriate honestly. But I think for us it’s like both teams are going through it. The other teams had six days in between games and we didn’t and that’s just the reality of what the league wanted and I think coming out tomorrow it’s all about the will to win. There’s just no time to be tired. There’s no time to say sorry me. We’re down, and I think our our motto is when you’re down, you’re never out. And I think we’ve shown that every year.” -Taylor Heise
3. Playoff Mindset
What are the players thinking about the playoffs?
Katie Knoll who scored the opening goal in game one: “I do just love the playoffs. I love big games.”
Grace Zumwinkle on overtime: “However long it takes to get the job done.”
Taylor Heise on being the only team to win the Walter Cup so far: “It just means that other people want it more. That means we just have to jack up our intensity.”
(Quotes from Written Rule of Sports articles on Heise and game two preview.)
4. Fan of the Year Mic’d Up
The Frost mic’d up Fan of the Year Maddy and it’s pretty great:
5. Expansion: Detroit
The PWHL announced the first expansion team for next year will be Detroit. No big surprise to see a PWHL team in Hockeytown with the strong attendance in Takeover Tour games. What’s next? The rumors continue to swirl (Hamilton seems to be rising to the top), but no official word yet. The league hasn’t confirmed a four-team expansion for next year, but that sounds like where it’s headed.
6. Who Do the Frost Lose?
With league expansion comes another expansion draft (sort of). The rules this year are complicated as hell and I won’t even try to explain it. But just like last year, it’s all but guaranteed that we’ll lose some good players.
Ug, must we have this conversation before the season is even done? Ignore if you want, but the speculation is rampant. Here’s an overview if you like swimming in speculation.
7. Kid Reporter With Taylor Heise
WCCO’s kid reporter Maura interviews Taylor Heise with great questions:
8. Mother’s Day Shoutout
Taylor Heise gave the shoutout the mom in the clip above, but here’s another quote from Sportsish:
“I wouldn’t be who I am without my mom. She is such a hard worker and does things in a way that I think I learned and took as my own. She is definitely my rock.”
9. Fan Signs
10. Fan Fare
PWHL Detroit swag is now available:
Next game: Tonight!