Rookie Sarah Wozniewicz scored her first goal with 65 seconds left in overtime to rally the Ottawa Charge to a 3-2 victory over the two-time defending-champion Minnesota Frost on Sunday at Allstate Arena in a continuation of the PWHL’s Takeover Tour.

Wozniewicz secured an assist from Peyton Hemp to score the winner for the Charge (1-1-0-5) at 3:55 in the 5-minute OT.

Ottawa took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period on a power-play goal by Ronja Savolainen — with assists from Kateřina Mrázová and Jocelyne Larocque.

The Frost (3-0-1-2) pulled even midway through the second on Britta Curl-Salemme’s second goal. Kelly Pannek earned her fourth assist, and Mae Batherson picked up her second.

Brianne Jenner found the net for the third time this season, beating goalie Nicole Hensley with 4 seconds left to put the Charge up 2-1 heading into the final period. First-round pick Rory Guilday recorded her fourth assist on the power-play goal, and Rebecca Leslie notched her third.

Batherson, a defender, scored her first career goal and knotted the game at 2-all four minutes into the final period on a power play — with another assist from Pannek and one from Kendall Cooper — her third.

Gwyneth Philips finished with 21 saves in goal for Ottawa — one in OT. Three of Hensley’s 19 saves came in the extra period.

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PHOENIX — When the Gophers football team woke up Sunday morning, outdoor temperatures in were in the single digits in Minnesota. But when their flight touched down in the afternoon, they were greeted with 75-degree weather in the Valley of the Sun.

That’s one of the biggest perks of the playing in the Rate Bowl in Arizona in December.

Head coach P.J. Fleck prides his program on not allowing the “circumstances affect their behavior,” but they couldn’t help themselves given their shivering amid a snowy and cold winter back home.

“Coming from Minnesota, our guys are so excited to be here, truly helped bowl prep as well knowing we were going to some place really warm,” Fleck said at the airport. “We’re so excited to be here.”

Minnesota (7-5) are a 2.5-point favorite against New Mexico (9-3) for a 3:30 p.m. kickoff Friday at Chase Field. The U came out a day before the Lobos were set to arrive in Phoenix.

The Gophers sold roughly 4,000 tickets in an allotment fans when Minnesota beat West Virginia 18-6 in the 2021 Guaranteed Rate Bowl in Phoenix. This year’s total for the U might end up being lower than four years ago, but it was trending to be more than New Mexico.

Albuquerque is approximately six hours from Phoenix.

Stars coming back?

The Gophers posted a photo of star defensive end Anthony Smith in a helmet and shoulder pads on Saturday with the title “Final Practice in Dinkytown.” It appears to be an indication the Big Ten’s second-leading tackler will play in bowl game.

On Sunday, Fleck continues to express confidence that Minnesota can retain its key players for 2026, including Smith and safety Koi Perich.

Without naming names, Fleck said: “Got to finish up one or two more, and I really love what we’ve done.”

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Grace Grocholski had 18 points and 11 rebounds, and Mara Braun added 16 points and four steals as Minnesota rolled past Drake, 68-43, Sunday afternoon at the Knapp Center in Des Moines.

Finau Tonga scored 12 points off of the bench for Minnesota, which improved to 9-3 and won its third straight nonconference game since a heartbreaking, double-overtime loss to No. 7 Maryland in their Big Ten opener on Dec. 10.

Maggie Taylor led Drake (2-9, 1-0 Missouri Valley) with nine points as the Bulldogs shot only 29 percent from the field and turned the ball over 21 times, leading to 24 Gophers points.

Drake took an early 15-11 lead before the Gophers ended the first quarter with a 13-4 run. A 12-0 run early in the second quarter gave Minnesota a 36-19 lead, and the Bulldogs never got within single digits again.

The Gophers started the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run that put the game away. Brylee Glenn’s layup put Minnesota up 65-36 with 7:12 remaining.

The Gophers are off until Dec. 29, when they travel to Indiana to resume Big Ten play. Tipoff is set for 5 p.m. CST.

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J.J. McCarthy and Caleb Williams were selected nine picks apart at the top of the 2024 NFL draft class, and nearly two years later one wonders what might have happened for McCarthy had he not missed what has officially become his rookie season.

With a year of NFL football under his belt, Williams, the No. 1 overall pick, is a burgeoning star leading the Bears to heights unseen in Chicago for years; McCarthy, picked 10th by the Vikings and playing his first NFL season, is at best an enigma.

This was thrown into stark relief this weekend, because Williams unleashed a pair of signature plays on Saturday night to rally the Bears past Green Bay and into sole possession of the NFC North lead. Already, the 22-16 victory has been dubbed by some as the NFL’s game of the year.

Less than 24 hours later, McCarthy’s season might have ended on what threatens to be his signature play in Minnesota — a sack with less than 20 seconds left in the first half that resulted in a fumble recovered and returned for a touchdown by former Gophers safety Tyler Nubin.

That pulled the nearly dead Giants to within 13-10 at the half, and Max Brosmer led the Vikings to a 16-13 victory on Will Reichard’s fourth-quarter field goal.

“These guys have continued to fight and find a way to win three in a row,” head coach Kevin O’Connell said.

For most outside the locker room, it didn’t feel like a win — let alone a three-game winning streak. That’s because a) the Vikings aren’t going to the playoffs and b) after McCarthy played well in victories over Cleveland and Dallas, he was wonky enough Sunday to cast additional doubt on his viability as an NFL-caliber quarterback.

And his season is likely done because of a right hand injury.

Afterward, O’Connell praised McCarthy’s progress and was complimentary of the way he played against the Giants.

“He’s looked like he has really found a place of decisiveness, of ownership of the offense,” O’Connell said. “So, yes, it’s a bummer.”

McCarthy was betrayed Sunday by some shoddy receiving from Jordan Addison — who dropped a discretely placed pass in the end zone — and Jalen Nailor, who tipped two catchable, if not perfect, passes into the hands of Giants defensive backs Paulsen Adebo and Jevon Holland.

Holland ran his interception 92 yards for a touchdown, only to have it called back because of a neutral zone infraction by teammate Abdul Carter. Otherwise, the Vikings would have been down 10-3, and McCarthy would have been statistically responsible for two turnovers that turned into touchdowns.

O’Connell supplied something of an alibi for the fumble, McCarthy’s sixth in nine games. Apparently, McCarthy hurt the hand on the previous drive, which ended when the quarterback scrambled 12 yards for a touchdown.

McCarthy, his coach said, didn’t know the hand was badly injured. On the ensuing drive, O’Connell said, “We ran the ball, and then tried to throw a simple receiver screen, and I’m not sure he was even able to grip the ball.”

One wonders why O’Connell had McCarthy throwing with 24 seconds left in the half with a 13-3 lead, but with the playoffs out of the picture, he probably wanted to see what the quarterback could do in an end-of-half situation. If that was the case, McCarthy responded in the worst possible way, injured hand or not.

So, now what?

It has been suggested in this space that this season can’t be a referendum on McCarthy’s future in Minnesota, and the sentiment remains. The young signal caller has made a lot of good plays for the Vikings this season; had last season been his first, maybe he would be playing a little more like Caleb Williams in 2025.

But after 11 touchdown passes against 12 interceptions, six fumbles, a 4-4 record and three significant injuries — four if you count the preseason game injury that ended his 2024 season before it started — there are a ton of questions to be answered.

From here, especially if McCarthy doesn’t play again this season, he hasn’t been good enough to have already earned the starting job in 2026. Unless this team decides to take a left turn into a rebuild, the Vikings must acquire a viable option before training camp begins.

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