Having already spent plenty of time away from her young son, Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield made sure that the team would get a few days off this week.
Coyne Schofield scored her first two goals of the playoffs, and Taylor Heise ripped a shot through traffic in overtime as the Frost ended the Toronto Sceptres’ season and advanced to their second consecutive Walter Cup Final with a 4-3 come-from-behind win on Wednesday night in St. Paul.
“There’s no doubt in my mind Kendall did not want to go back to Toronto,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “She’s spent enough time away from Drew lately and I think she was like, ‘I’m not letting it happen. Two or three more days at home with my kid, I’m doing it.’ And obviously she was outstanding tonight.”
It was the fist goal of the playoffs for Heise, who came flying off the bench and scored for the Frost. They did not lead until the final goal, getting 26 saves from Nicole Hensley — including a sprawling pad save to thwart a Toronto breakaway in overtime — to win the best-of-five series 3-1.
“I probably missed the net three times leading up to that, but just the belief in my teammates, every time I came back to the bench, I had three or four teammates tapping me on the back, saying, ‘You’ve got this,’” Heise said. “The last one, I just waited it out a little bit and like I said, we had so many good screens, so many good passes today, I wanted to do it for the team.”
Minnesota will open the championship series on the road, facing the winner of the Ottawa-Montreal series, likely early next week.
As opposed to Game 3, which featured a league-record 12 goals scored, neither team had a shot on goal in the first five minutes on Wednesday.
But Toronto made its first shot count, when Julia Gosling got open behind the Frost defense, and after a set-up pass from Emma Woods, was in alone on Hensley. Gosling’s low shot beat the Frost goalie on the glove side for an early lead.
It was the only goal of the opening period, in which Minnesota gained the offensive zone with some quick rushes up ice, but could only get six shots on the Toronto net. That number did not include Michaela Cava’s wrist shot that clanked off the goalpost with less than 30 seconds left in the opening period.
Outshot 7-0 in the first half of the middle frame, the Frost trailed 2-0 when Hannah Miller got a shot through a crowd to beat Hensley from 20 feet out.
But the Frost had an answer, quickly.
Just 14 seconds after the Toronto goal, Heise fired a shot from the top of the circle with Coyne Schofield causing trouble in front of the Sceptres’ net. Heise’s shot got through after a redirection from Coyne Schofield for her first goal of the playoffs, and it put momentum squarely on Minnesota’s side.
With under 90 seconds to play in the period, Minnesota hemmed the Sceptres into the defensive zone for an extended shift that ended with the game tied. This time it was Brooke McQuigge shooting from the top of the circle, and getting a deflection off Pannek’s stick, sending the game to the final 20 minutes tied 2-2.
The Frost had just four shots in the second period, but made two of them count.
“Tonight I thought we battled hard. Minnesota’s a difficult offensive team to play against,” said Toronto coach Troy Ryan. “I thought we found ways to contribute offensively and I thought we were relatively good defensively…There were a few opportunities for us to put it away and we just didn’t.”
Toronto immediately got the momentum, and the lead, back at the start of the third when Emma Maltais slipped a low shot past Hensley’s glove less than a minute into the period.
But the Frost forged another deadlock when Sophie Jaques got a deflected shot through to the net. The Toronto goalie made the save, but Coyne Schofield backhanded the rebound home for a 3-3 tie midway through the third.
Minnesota had a golden opportunity for the game-winner with 1:08 left in regulation, when a scramble in front of the Toronto net ended with Sceptres defender Allie Munroe on top of the puck in the crease. The Frost argued that Munroe had covered the puck with her hand, which would have resulted in a penalty shot. But there was no call, and the game went to overtime. Both teams said they were generally OK with the penalty-free game, but Klee said the covered puck should have been called.
“Obviously I got upset with the covering the puck in the crease…that just can’t happen,” Klee said. “But the refs are doing their best to let the players decide, so I let it go. I didn’t say another word about it.”
After Maddie Rooney had backstopped wins in Game 2 and Game 3, Klee went back to Hensley for Game 4. Toronto made a corresponding move, starting Carly Jackson in goal after Kristen Campbell had played the first three games of the series, and 21 of the Sceptres’ 30 regular-season contests.
Jackson had 22 saves for Toronto.
