State of Heise, state of the defending champs
Taylor Heise had a career year helping lead the Frost back to the playoffs.
Taylor Heise has said a variation of this quote at least a few times after the first and second Walter Cup Championships she’s helped Minnesota win in the PWHL: “We’re the only ones that have experienced this type of win.”
“Now after year two, it’s the same way,” Heise told Written Rule of Sports last week ahead of the playoffs. “It just means that other people want it more.
“That means we just have to jack up our intensity.”
The Minnesota Frost seemed to do that in Game 1 of their PWHL semifinal playoff series against the Montreal Victoire over the weekend, stealing home-ice advantage with a 5-4 overtime victory. It was the first time in five tries that Minnesota came away victorious in Game 1 of a playoff series.
In a game that had just about everything – although still wasn’t quite the roller coaster of absolute madness that was Game 1 of the Minnesota Wild vs. Colorado Avalanche contest on Sunday night (look up those highlights if you missed it) – the Frost used scoring depth and resilience to find a way to win and take an early lead in the best-of-five series.
Heise had two assists in the game and a team-high five shots on goal. She had a great chance to give the Frost a 3-0 lead, too.
But even taking the shot is something she’s done more of this season as she put up career-best numbers in all three offensive statistical categories with 13 goals, 17 assists and 30 points in 30 games. She also finished the regular season with a plus-18 rating and a career-high three power-play goals.
Heise said hadn’t looked at her shots statistics this season but figured she had more shots on net this season.
She’s correct. Heise put up 89 shots in the regular season, 20 more than her total from a year ago and a career-best 14.6% shooting percentage.
“Kind of brings me back to college where I kind of just had to score,” said Heise, who finished her time with the University of Minnesota ranking sixth all-time in scoring with 97 goals and 227 points. “As much as I want to make a play, I really just have to rely on myself to put the puck in the back of the net sometimes.
“I think this year, just seeing it go in a little bit more gave me more confidence.”
She added that she shifted her focus in her summer, off-season training last year, wanting to hone in on finishing. She knew her team was going to need that from her this season. Her efforts paid off in the form of consistent offensive production.
Heise didn’t have a multi-goal game until the second-to-last game of the season in Seattle. But she had a pair of four-game goal streaks and scored at least a point in 19-of-30 games.
“To me, Taylor’s had the best year of her career,” said Frost coach Ken Klee. “Just being more dominant, not needing somebody to help her. She’s been able to help others and that sort of thing.”
She’s one of a few Frost players who’ve stepped up and had career years, joining the league’s leading scorer Kelly Pannek and Heise’s close friend and roommate, Grace Zumwinkle, who also up her best numbers this season. Those are just a couple of examples, and all three players are in their third season with Minnesota in the PWHL, plus they were teammates on Team USA, which won gold at this winter’s Olympics.
Their offensive depth helped the Frost reach the Walter Cup Playoffs for the third consecutive season with a shot at completing a three-peat. They’re bucking their own trends so far this year – earning a playoff berth as the No. 3 seed instead of No. 4, winning Game 1 – but the top seed still picked them as its opponent in the semifinals for the second time in three years.
Heise likes to refer to being the lower seed as “playing with house money.” So far, it worked for them the first two seasons.
“It’s always an opportunity to prove people wrong,” Heise said, of being the lower-seeded team chosen by the No. 1 seed. “I know our group is really, really excited to continue to do that.”
The Frost certainly faced adversity and took harder roads on that path of proving people wrong the first two seasons. In the inaugural season after getting the last playoff spot, they didn’t score a goal in the first two playoff games against Toronto, the top seed that chose to play Minnesota. That left three must-win games if Minnesota wanted to advance to the final.
They returned the favor with a pair of shutouts of their own, including one in double overtime, to send the series to a decisive Game 5 in Toronto. Minnesota won 4-1, getting a pair of goals from Heise. In the final, they took a 2-1 series lead against Boston, thought they won in Game 4, ended up losing in double overtime and then got a shutout win in Game 5 to secure their first championship.
Last season, they defeated Toronto with three straight wins after dropping Game 1 before going to overtime for all four games in the final against Ottawa to become back-to-back champs.
The only team to ever do it.
“When you’re down, you’re not out,” Heise said she told her teammates just before this series against Montreal. “We have clearly shown that in the past, both years.”
The Frost, and the Victoire, too, showed that type of fight even in the first game of this series. Minnesota grabbed leads, and Montreal had the answers to tie the game three different times. Minnesota took the lead back and eventually found the decisive goal in the first few minutes of overtime when Jincy Roese scored.
“Obviously, we want to go up 2-0 (in the series) right away,” Heise said. “Getting away games under your belt are huge.”
The Frost will have a chance to do that in Game 2 on Tuesday night. Then they’ll return home to St. Paul for Game 3 on Thursday at Grand Casino Arena. With a busy building schedule, if Game 4 is necessary it would be a back-to-back situation with the game played on Friday night in St. Paul.
Minnesota has a 1-0 series lead for the first time in franchise history. Pressure is a privilege, Heise said, and her team has that. She’s excited to see how her team goes out and competes looking for that third Walter Cup.
“We understand one day, it’s not going to be our time,” Heise said. “And we just don’t want that to be right now.”