Frost flip the script, win Game 1 in OT
Minnesota never trailed and snapped a losing streak against Montreal.
The Minnesota Frost have already shown that this year is different, and that might be a good thing. Even though they ultimately want the same result as the last two years: A Walter Cup Championship.
The two-time defending PWHL champions earned a playoff spot with a few games remaining in the regular season and finished as the No. 3 seed, instead of getting in on the very last day as the No. 4 seed like in 2024 and 2025.
Their latest addition to flipping their own script? A 5-4 overtime victory over the Montreal Victoire in Game 1 of the playoff semifinals on Saturday afternoon. For the first time in five playoff series, Minnesota took a 1-0 series lead.
Jincy Roese, a Frost defender who was acquired via a trade with New York on March 30, scored the overtime winner 4 minutes, 30 seconds into the extra session. Her long shot from near the blue line made it through traffic in front and appeared to deflect off someone in front of the net.
“Joining the Frost, it’s really been an honor,” Roese told the media after the game. “This is a great group of girls, and it’s a privilege to be on this team and to get to compete with them. I mean, the mindsets on this team, the talent, the skills… to get to be part of that, it’s really a privilege of my career.”
The Frost got the win with five different goal scorers and nine players recording points. Spreading the scoring around isn’t unusual for the Frost this season. But there’s a lot more to the story, too, in a playoff game filled with physicality, penalties, special teams factoring into scoring, an historic hat trick and a game that was tied three different times.
Each team came into the game without a Game 1 victory in their playoff history. Montreal, the top seed for the second year in a row which chose to face Minnesota this time around, was swept out of the 2024 semifinals with three overtime losses to lower-seed Boston and then lost to Ottawa in four games last.
Minnesota came into the series 0-4 in Game 1s but 4-0 in playoff series.
The Frost were already off to a good start when Katy Knoll finished off a play off the rush, getting a feed from Klára Hymlárová near the boards as she was streaking toward the net for the 1-0 lead about midway through the first period.
Kendall Coyne Schofield drew a penalty later in the period, and then she proceeded to score a goal to double the Frost’s lead. She was in front of the net and slid the puck past Ann-Renée Desbiens, celebrating right away.
Officials called it a goal on the ice and confirmed the call with a review to make sure the puck crossed the goal line. The Frost continued to tilt the ice in their favor and went into the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.
Early in the second period, Taylor Heise had a golden opportunity to make it a 3-0 game with a scoring chance all alone, but Desbiens made a spectacular save.
Remember that save, because then within the first three minutes of the period, Montreal made it a one-goal game when Shiann Darkangelo scored on a rebound.
A couple of minutes later, the physicality of playoff hockey showed up with a post-whistle scrum around the Montreal net that resulted in coincidental roughing minors on Abby Roque and Britta Curl-Salemme.
After the Frost had a couple of more chances on the power play, going 1-for-5, Stacey, who had served one of those minors, scored as she snuck the puck inside the post and around goaltender Maddie Rooney to tie the game 2-2 with about two minutes left in the second period.
But with a quick response, Grace Zumwinkle picked up a loose puck off a Montreal stick, turned and fired her shot into the net just 46 seconds after the Victoire goal.
In the final minute of the period, more rough play again. It could have repercussions and the Frost could potentially lose the league’s top assist playmaker in Curl-Salemme in this series. She delivered a high hit on Kaitlin Willoughy near the end of the second period and was penalized with a five-minute major for a check to the head and received a game misconduct.
The PWHL Player Safety Committee could make a decision on a fine or suspension. Curl-Salemme was suspended three times last season, twice for an illegal check to the head. This year, she finished the regular season with a league-leading 18 assists.
The Frost still went into the intermission with a 3-2 lead, but the Victoire scored early in the third period during the major power play, which was a three-minute advantage since Catherine Dubois was also called for roughing minor in that late-second period scrum. Stacey scored her second of the game to make it 3-3.
Again, the Frost answered.
Defender Sidney Morin scored only 48 seconds later on another great feed from Hymlárová behind the net. It was her first career shorthanded goal, playoff goal and Frost goal. 4-3, Frost.
But the momentum, and trips to the penalty box, continued to swing back and forth. Morin took a minor for cross-checking in the next shift after her goal. That paved the way for Stacey to complete her hat trick exactly a minute after Morin’s goal. Back to a tie game, 4-4, early in the third period.
“I liked our resiliency,” said Montreal coach Kori Cheverie. “I liked our character to keep coming back. I think spotting (our opponents) leads is not going to work out in the long run, but it’s one game and there are some things we need to clean up, and we’ll go from there.”
The hat trick, with Roque and Marie-Philip Poulin each getting their second assists of the game on the third goal, was the first in PWHL playoff history.
That’s where the game stayed until the end of regulation, although the Frost had one more grade-A scoring chance in the final 10 seconds of the third. This marked the fifth consecutive playoff game for the Frost that went to overtime.
Montreal had already defeated Minnesota twice in overtime during the regular season, and the Frost were 3-5 overall in overtime games.
This one was decided within the first five minutes. After a scoring chance for Kelly Pannek just failed to connect, the puck went out to Roese up high, and she sent the puck toward the net, getting a deflection for her first career playoff goal and, like Morin, her first goal as a member of the Frost.
Roese is also the first defender in league playoff history to score in overtime.
She’s the sixth different Minnesota player in franchise history to score a playoff overtime winner. The others: Claire Butorac (2024 semifinal Game 4 vs. Toronto), Heise (2025 semifinal Game 4), Curl-Salemme (2025 final, Game 2), Knoll (2025 final Game 3), Liz Schepers (2025 final Game 4).
The victory for the Frost not only got them in the win column for Game 1, but it snapped a four-game losing streak they took into the playoffs. They also hadn’t defeated Montreal since March 2025, a six-game losing streak from the end of last season until now.
The Frost scored five goals against one of the best netminders in the league this season; Desbiens allowed a season-high five goals after having allowed two-or-fewer goals in all but one other game this season. For the Frost, Rooney made 21 saves and allowed four goals but still earned her ninth career playoff victory, the most of any PWHL goaltender.
Up next: Game 2 of the Walter Cup Semifinals at 6 p.m. CT Tuesday at Place Bell.
Splendid article Heather! I had to miss OT and your description is marvelous!!!
Go Frost 😊
“Tilt the ice in their favor…”. I like that phrase. Great team, great writing!