The Minnesota Frost have a chip on their shoulders against the Montreal Victoire. Minnesota had lost three consecutive games to their French-Canadian opponents dating back to March 4
The Frost entered Wednesday night’s game with back-to-back wins at Grand Casino Arena, but the home cooking wouldn’t be in Minnesota’s favor even with a Kelly Pannek goal sending them into overtime.
The Victoire’s hero from their last victory over the Frost in Montreal, Marie-Philip Poulin, scored her second consecutive OT goal to give the Victoire a 2-1 win. Montreal won 3-2 in the extra session on Jan. 4 at home.
“We would have liked to capitalize on a few of our chances, as I’m sure they would have, as well,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “Hard fought game, both teams were playing tight, and second game in a row that goes into overtime and we just end up on the wrong side.”
“It’s no secret she’s really good,” Pannek said of Poulin. “I think that’s something about this league though, that every single night there’s a player like that on the ice for both teams.”
The game almost wouldn’t have gone into overtime, if not for a crucial goal from Pannek, with 1:02 left in the third.
Taylor Heise and Pannek don’t usually play on the same line, but Klee had changed things up in hopes to get an opportunity to send the game into overtime. Fortunately, the line change worked and Heise set up Pannek for her sixth goal of the season.
“I’m not on the ice with Heise too often, but I knew her rolling that seam up top, she made a great shot,” Pannek said. “Just a really smart, great angle shot looking for a rebound. It’s a big, big point to get into overtime, so even though we lost, it was still an important point.”
The last time these two teams met, it was Montreal getting the late third-period goal with 29 seconds left to send the game into OT. Both the Frost and Victoire had plenty of opportunities to make this a higher scoring game as Montreal had 26 shots on goal, (down from 38 in their last game against the Frost) to Minnesota’s 24 (up from 21).
Earlier in the third, with just around 10 minutes left in the period, Britta Curl-Salemme had an opportunity to change the game’s results. With the right side of the Victoire goal wide open, the puck bounced off the right side pole of the net.
“I think any game you can find things to be frustrated about,” Curl-Salemme said. “I thought we still were getting chances,so you try not to get worried about it until after the game, and then you can go back and look at those things. We got a goal late in the third period, so at that point, it really doesn’t matter.”
The Frost and Victoire rounded out the top half of the PWHL standings entering Wednesday night’s game. The Frost maintained third place with 22 points, while the Victoire were one behind in fourth, with only a week left before breaking for the Winter Olympics.
With the Frost having three of their last four games end in overtime, the team’s energy hasn’t quite been where Pannek and Klee have been hoping it to be. Even with Frost defender Lee Stecklein back on the ice after missing a couple of games, they still have work to do in getting in a groove before the break.
“I don’t think we were as sharp as we were the last time we played in here [Grand Casino Arena], when we were able to put up six, and really connect on our passes, and showing our speed and how fast we can play. So just one of those games, it was a tight game, and came down to they made one more play than us,” Klee said.
Pannek is hopeful this stretch of home games will bring them back into formation when they return to PWHL action on March 1.
“I think our team can come out with a little bit more energy. It felt like this game and our last game in New York, we just weren’t quite as sharp as coach eluded to, and I don’t think we had the jump we wished,” Pannek said. “So again, we have a nice little chunk of time here at home to where we can hopefully get into a routine, and I think these next two games, six points on the line, are going to be really important ahead of the international break.”
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