The Minnesota Frost booked a return trip to the PWHL Final with offense, dispatching Toronto in the league semifinals by scoring 18 goals in four first round games. But the championship round is proving to be a different game altogether.

After another defensive battle, Britta Curl-Salemme scored her second goal of the game in overtime, lifting the Frost to a 2-1 come-from-behind win over the Ottawa Charge in Game 2 of the Walter Cup Final, knotting the best-of-five series 1-1.

Game 3 will be played Saturday at 4 p.m. CDT at Xcel Energy Center.

“They took us off our game and took it to us, especially in the first half,” Frost coach Ken Klee said, crediting Ottawa’s defense. “I think in the third period we finally got to our game and started getting pucks in and playing the way we know we can play. But it was a tight game.”

With an Ottawa defender draped on her in the overtime, Curl-Salemme slapped a low shot that beat the Ottawa goalie to send the series back to Minnesota and give the Frost the home ice advantage.

Trailing by a goal with less than a minute to play, the Frost got their fifth power play of the game when Grace Zumwinkle was hauled down in front of the net. With goalie Maddie Rooney on the bench and Minnesota on a 6-on-4 advantage, Curl-Salemme slapped a rebound between the Ottawa goalie Gwyneth Philips’ knees with 15.4 seconds remaining to force the extra session.

Curl-Salemme, a rookie who played college hockey at Wisconsin, has made some enemies with controversial social media posts when she was a teenager, and with physical play that had her suspended for part of the semifinals. She was booed by Ottawa fans every time she carried the puck, and after the winning goal.

The PWHL has shielded her from the media this season, and a Frost official said Curl-Salemme was in the trainers room and unavailable for postgame interviews on Thursday.

“She’s an outstanding player, an outstanding person, an outstanding teammate,” Klee said. “No one’s happier for her than our entire team. She’s obviously had to deal with some adversity and stuff and she rises above it.”

Rooney finished with 37 saves for the Frost, improving to 3-0 in the playoffs.

The game was scoreless with less than three minutes left in regulation. Then Ottawa’s Rebecca Leslie lifted a puck from Frost defender Maggie Flaherty behind the net, and Jocelyne Larocque slipped a low shot past Rooney to give the Charge the late lead.

But Minnesota’s special teams, which had been stymied for the game’s first 59 minutes, found a way to draw level late. Philips had 22 saves for Ottawa, which lost at home for the first time in the playoffs.

Philips sticked away a backhand attempt by Minnesota’s Brooke McQuigge just 35 seconds into overtime, with the Frost forward getting loose in front of the Ottawa net.

As they have done often in these playoffs, the Frost’s offense took a while to get going, but made a stronger push late in the game.

The game’s first power play went Minnesota’s way, and the Frost kept Ottawa hemmed in for much of the two minutes, but managed only one shot on Phillips, as the Charge did exemplary work clogging the net-front and blocking shots.

Early offense continued to be a struggle for Minnesota. After putting four shots on goal in the opening period of Game 1, the Frost had just three first period shots on Thursday.

Things started even worse for Minnesota in the middle frame, as their offense still sputtered and the Frost’s second power play of the game was a disaster, with the Charge controlling the play and testing Rooney repeatedly throughout the two minutes. The Frost made a push late in the period but was still out-shot 16-6 in the frame.

“I was seeing the puck well, but I thought the team did a great job of  tying up sticks in front of us and clearing bodies out of the way to make it easier for me to see,” Rooney said. “I think it just says a lot about our team, being down and being able to tie it with 15 seconds left and getting the win in overtime.”

After holding Ottawa without a shot on an early third period power play, the Frost again went to the player advantage when Sophie Jaques was hooked on a rush to the net. This time Minnesota got a pair of pucks to the net front, but still could not solve Phillips.

Rooney, the former Minnesota Duluth star who backstopped Team USA’s 2018 Olympic gold medal, had started Games 2 and 3 of the first round series versus Toronto, putting up unimpressive numbers in saves percentage and goals against, but winning both contests.

Ottawa played Game 2 without forward Katerina Mrazova, who was injured in a neutral zone collision with Curl-Salemme in the series opener.

Related Articles

Frost seize control of PWHL semifinal series

Frost to open PWHL playoffs at Toronto

Frost score early, often to top Toronto

Frost’s playoff hopes take hit in loss to Montreal

Victoire edge Frost 2-1 in a shootout

Members of inmate-rights organizations gathered Thursday in Bayport to demand input into the Minnesota Department of Corrections’ plan to shutter the Stillwater prison by 2029.

Among their demands: No new prisons. No double-bunking. Permission for those serving life sentences to remain at Stillwater through the end of the year. Full implementation of the 2023 Minnesota Rehabilitation & Reinvestment Act before transferring any inmate (MRRA allows qualified inmates a chance to shave an additional 17 percent off their sentences).

“This move is too big of a move to happen without the input of greater, wider community input, specifically, justice-impacted people who have served time in Stillwater,” said Antonio Williams, the co-executive director of T.O.N.E. U.P. Inc., an organization that helps people leaving incarceration. “(These) demands must be included during this transition.”

About 1,200 men are housed in the Minnesota Correctional Facility-Stillwater, which is located in Bayport.

Among them is Cornelius Jackson, who is serving life in prison without the possibility of release after being found guilty in 2006 of aiding and abetting first-degree murder.

“We’re here today not just because Stillwater is closing, we’re here because real lives are being uprooted and disrupted,” Alissa Washington, Jackson’s fiancée, told the small crowd gathered at Lakeside Park, just a mile south of the prison. “People who have been in this facility for decades are now being moved like baggage. Let me be very clear: this transition is happening, so it must be done with care, accountability and dignity.”

Special care must be taken with the inmates’ personal property, including photos, legal documents, clothing and books, said Washington, founder of Wrongfully Incarcerated and Over-Sentenced Families Council-MN. “And when (personal property) arrives at the new facility, it must be accepted, regardless of a different warden’s rules,” she said. “It’s not right to force someone to repurchase clothes or essentials just because the rules changed from one prison to another. That’s cruelty, not policy.”

Zero double-bunking is the preference, but if bunking must happen, inmates “must have the right to choose their cellmate,” Washington said. “It is reckless and dangerous to place someone from the Aryan Nation in a cell with a practicing Muslim. That’s not just bad policy, it’s how you get people hurt or killed, and we’re not going to stand by and allow that.

“This transition should not create new trauma,” she said. “It should not result in violence, lost property, or emotional harm. These are not numbers, they are people — people who we love who are surviving in cages.”

Phased closure

State leaders last week agreed to a “phased closure” of the Stillwater prison, citing safety and costly maintenance concerns at the facility, which was built in 1914.

Related Articles

St. Paul faith-based nonprofit leader charged with possessing child pornography

Vandals trash part of Alliance Bank Center in downtown St. Paul

Groundswell cafe in St. Paul temporarily closes after fire

Ramsey County leaders remind residents: ‘Safe gun storage saves lives’

George Floyd: Minneapolis, St. Paul events mark his death, community response

Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell said the closure would end state investments in an aging facility and eliminate safety concerns at the prison for both staff and inmates. The closure is expected to be completed in two phases upon passage of the public-safety omnibus bill at the Legislature.

The first phase involves reducing operations and staffing over several months, moving inmates to other prisons, and conducting studies on logistics, closure impacts and the site’s long-term future, corrections officials said. During the second phase, which is slated to begin in July 2027, the site will be vacated. Full closure is expected by June 30, 2029.

Unions representing correction officers and staff at Stillwater have called for a halt to the plan, calling the budget agreement that includes the closure “shortsighted, downright dangerous, disruptive and deeply disrespectful to the workers that keep the community safe and the inmates safe.”

A corrections spokeswoman said the organizers of Thursday’s press conference had not reached out to Schnell to offer their suggestions, but that he would be open to “gaining their perspectives and insights” and planned to connect with them to schedule a meeting.

In response to a question about whether corrections would adopt the safety protocols for the transition proposed by the inmate-rights groups, Shannon Loehrke, the agency’s director of communications, said officials were not prepared to discuss them at this time.

“Safety and security are always primary considerations” in the Department of Corrections, she said.

Minnesota Rehabilitation & Reinvestment Act

Loehrke said the phased closure of the Stillwater facility is “entirely separate” from the implementation of the Minnesota Rehabilitation & Reinvestment Act, which she said is in the “very early implementation stage” with pilots at the prisons in Shakopee and Moose Lake.

“The department is keenly focused on successful implementation of MRRA policies, and we will not compromise effective intervention efforts,” she said.

A long-term plan for rehabilitating or replacing the Stillwater and St. Cloud prison was recommended in 2020 by the Office of the Legislative Auditor in a report titled “Safety in State Correctional Facilities,” Loehrke said.

“The phased closure of Stillwater is regarded as a step in the direction recommended by the OLA,” she said. “As the phased closure plan is implemented, the DOC needs to ensure that the state has modern, safe and secure correctional facility capacity to serve the long-term needs of Minnesota’s criminal-justice system.”

Related Articles

Pioneer Press 2025 patio guide: Wring every second out of summer at these 100+ Twin Cities spots

Pioneer Press 2025 patio guide: Along the water and scenic spots

Truck driver tells trooper he was distracted by map before Washington County fatal crash

Woodbury officials seek info on rug connected to house fire

Landfall Village is about to declare its independence

Listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1986, the Stillwater State Prison Historic District in Bayport includes the original walled compound designed by architect Clarence H. Johnston Sr., and constructed in 1910-1914, along with its associated staff housing area. DOC officials said Thursday that there will be a decommissioning study to figure out possible future uses for the correctional facility and site, which sits on about 180 acres.

The study will explore options for decommissioning and vacating the facility’s physical and security infrastructure, analysis of requirements for buildings on the National Register of Historic Places and examination of development opportunities for the site, Loehrke said.

DOC officials reached out to Bayport officials last week after the announcement of the closure was made, Bayport Mayor Michele Hanson said.

“At this point, it’s too early for us to have any comment other than we hope that everything transitions smoothly and that we’re involved in the process as to what happens with the site,” she said.

OKLAHOMA CITY — Anthony Edwards was fined another $50,000 by the NBA on Wednesday for using a curse word as an adjective during his postgame press conference following Minnesota’s Game 1 loss to the Thunder.

Edwards said he had to take more than 13 (bleeping) shots, which was his shot volume in Tuesday’s loss.

In goes another contribution to the swear jar.

The fine brought Edwards’ season long tally to $420K giving to the league for his transgressions. He has earned much of that. The NBA can’t countenance players delivering profanity-laced postgame comments or telling fans in the stands about the size of his genitals.

But, to some degree, it does feel like there are times where Edwards’ reputation precedes him. Because the 23-year-old guard has made efforts over the past few months to curtail his cursing when speaking to the media. And his slip Tuesday felt like just that, a slip.

Frankly, curse words are part of Edwards’ everyday vernacular. Eliminating his use of them in certain settings is part of a maturation process that is very much still in the infant stages. He certainly needs to improve in a number of off-the-court areas.

Everyone understands that repeat offenders are often shown little in the way of grace.

But slapping the guard’s wrist every time he commits a minor infraction seems counterproductive. Edwards is one of few players who fans are nearly as excited to hear talk as they are to see play. His charisma is one of his major selling points. For the first few years of his career, his postgame interviews were must-see content.

The volume of those has waned a bit in recent seasons, as Edwards has slowly withdrawn from the media. He turns down the majority of post-practice or shootaround interviews, and even somewhat regularly declines to provide postgame comments. The latter includes a multi-week media hiatus the all-star took after he began being fined by the league for his language prior to the calendar flipping to 2025.

And certainly, at that point, the league had to teach Edwards a lesson. He couldn’t be swearing at the volume he was, particularly when doing on-court interviews. That doesn’t fall in line with the image any pro sports league wants to portray.

Edwards didn’t see it that way. He was initially frustrated. But his improvements should be acknowledged. Efforts were being made to clean up his comments while still showing himself to be the athlete to whom so many fans are drawn.

That’s the line to walk. The NBA shouldn’t want Edwards to delete or mute his personality. It’s a selling point for the Timberwolves and the Association at large. Fans adore the guy who walked around the LA area surrounding Crypto.Com Arena after the Wolves bounced the Lakers in Round 1 of these playoffs.

Ideally, that can still come across without the language not suited for young kids or certain clientele. But should the NBA continue to crack down to this degree, punishing every minor slip of the tongue, it does risk Edwards pulling away further?

The ability to express who you are should be encouraged, within reason. The NBA’s challenge is to walk that line of maintaining cordiality, while promoting charisma.

The fine levied Tuesday, even if it’s pocket change to Edwards, felt like a step in a direction that is slightly too conservative.

All-defense recognition

Rudy Gobert earned his first second-team all-defense honor of his career when the two teams were announced by the NBA on Thursday.

Gobert nabbed the 10th-and-final spot on the all-defense teams.

Gobert was a level below the player who won his fourth Defensive Player of the Year honor a season ago for much of the 2024-25 campaign, but he was still the anchor and most important piece on a Minnesota defense that finished sixth in defensive rating this season by allowing 110.8 points per 100 possessions. that number dipped to 107.6 when Gobert was on the floor.

This selection marks Gobert’s eighth all-defense selection. He was named to the first team every season from 2017-22, and was first team again last year. Gobert received three first-team votes and 59 second-team votes from the 100-voter panel. He edged New York forward OG Anunoby for the final second-team selection.

Absent from the two teams was Wolves’ perimeter stopper Jaden McDaniels. McDaniels earned his first all-defense selection a year ago, when he was named to the second team. But, like Gobert, he got off to a slow start to the season overall. While his admission may seem like a slight, cracking the list of the league’s top 10 defenders each season is a difficult task, particularly for perimeter players whose efforts aren’t as well represented by defensive metrics.

Related Articles

Now the Timberwolves understand the challenge that is the Thunder

The Timberwolves attempted 51 3-pointers in Game 1. Can they win that way?

Frederick: We’ve always known Timberwolves and Thunder were ‘Next.’ But which one is now?

Anthony Edwards’ heroic shots get Timberwolves out of trouble

Mizutani: All aboard the Julius Randle bandwagon

If History Theatre has a signature show, it’s “Glensheen,” which will receive its 10th anniversary production this summer. But the company currently has something onstage that may deserve the same kind of enduring presence in our local theater scene.

“Whoa, Nellie!” is built around the life and times of a former Minnesotan with whom you’re almost certainly unfamiliar. Nellie King was a woman of the 1880s and ’90s who could be called a cultural curiosity. She was a chameleonic con artist, a vaudeville performer, a horse thief, a serial bride, a prostitute and a norm-defying gender bender, among many other things.

John Jamison II, front, and cast members in History Theatre’s premiere production of “Whoa, Nellie! The Outlaw King of the Wild Middle West,” which runs through June 8, 2025 at the St. Paul theater. Josef Evans’ new musical follows the exploits of Nellie King, a 19th-century Minnesota woman who became a notorious outlaw. (Rick Spaulding / History Theatre)

Josef Evans has created a musical about her that stands among the most exciting and imaginative shows to have hit the History Theatre boards in recent years. It’s a darkly comic thrill ride that’s not only richly entertaining, but thought-provoking and finally heartbreaking. And it features a “wow”-inducing performance by Em Adam Rosenberg as Nellie.

It’s a role built for just such a star turn, as Evans’ musical (for which he wrote the book, music and lyrics) is about a woman who got by on charisma and an unslakable thirst for the public’s attention, one who proudly presented arresting officers with her newspaper clippings. The Nellie King we meet via Evans’ vision and Rosenberg’s compelling portrayal is one of those magnetic personalities who inspire with their sense of abandon before closer examination reveals shadings of the tragic.

The musical is framed as a vaudeville variety show with an experimental edge, a meta excursion in which other pop culture figures of King’s time (most of them largely forgotten) step forward to guide you through the story and the yarn grows more ripping by the scene. Evans employs a stylistic smorgasbord for his 16 songs, including thunderous rock, wafting waltzes, barbershop harmonies, pop balladry and even a show-stopping gospel number.

It all serves an itinerant tale that has interesting things to say about American culture’s confused history with the gender binary and how to enforce it, as well as what lies beneath a longing to be noticed and celebrated that extends long before the advent of social media.

There are echoes of Kander and Ebb’s “Cabaret” in this musical’s storytelling style, what with an emcee who wanders the aisles and engages the audience, as well as its unblinking gaze at the seedier sides of life. Director Laura Leffler has helped shape a crisply energetic production that benefits from the clear commitment of a very talented cast of nine that ably executes Joey Miller’s choreographic concoction of movement old and new.

There are convincing characterizations and fine voices throughout the ensemble, with John Jamison II a standout as our host, Bert Williams, a comedian of the era.

Related Articles

Review: The jukebox musical reaches its zenith with ‘& Juliet’

Theology gets a snarky, irreverent shake-up in Six Points’ ‘An Act of God’

Review: Children’s Theatre does modern Broadway well with ‘Frozen’

Theater review: Penumbra’s ‘When We Are Found’ celebrates love and resilience

Theater review: Guthrie’s ‘Nacirema Society’ turns out to be all about love and laughter

But no one can eclipse the star quality of Rosenberg, a non-binary actor who’s been primarily a Shakespearean on Twin Cities stages, but demonstrates that they have musical theater chops in abundance and an astonishingly versatile voice that can slide from operatic soprano to bluesy tenor.

We’ll likely look back upon their performance as one of the year’s best, and thank Evans for creating the memorable role that made it possible.

Rob Hubbard can be reached at wordhub@yahoo.com.

‘Whoa, Nellie! The Outlaw King of the Wild Middle West’

When: Through June 8

Where: History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul

Tickets: $74-$15, available at 651-292-4323 or historytheatre.com

Capsule: A very entertaining, thought-provoking musical about one woman’s quest to go down in history.