When the Minnesota Frost take the ice for the team’s third Professional Women’s Hockey League season in November, they will open the season the same way they started last year: raising last year’s league championship banner.
One difference, of course, will be the name of the hockey arena in St. Paul where the banner will hang.
On Wednesday, the Minnesota Frost announced their full 2025-26 PWHL schedule. Here’s five things you need to know:
Run it back
The Minnesota Frost will open the season against Toronto on Friday, Nov. 21, at Grand Casino Arena (formerly Xcel Energy Center), preceded by a celebration of the team winning its second Walter Cup title in as many seasons of the league’s existence.
The the league’s inaugural 2023-24 season included 24 games for each team, expanded to a 30-game schedule last year. This season the schedule will include 30 games again, with 13 at Grand Casino Arena. Only two of those home games (Nov. 21 opener and Dec. 19 vs. Boston) are before the new year.
West Coast wandering
The PWHL now includes eight teams thanks to expansion into two new West Coast cities, Seattle and Vancouver. The Frost will play PWHL Seattle’s first home game, on Friday, Nov. 28. Minnesota makes its debut against Vancouver on Dec. 27. Both expansion teams will make their first trips to St. Paul in January: Seattle on Jan. 11 and Vancouver on Jan. 28.
Six former Frost players are now on Vancouver’s expansion team: defenders Claire Thompson, Sophie Jaques and Mellissa Channell-Watkins, and reliable forwards Michela Cava, Brooke McQuigge and Denisa Křížová. That makes the Frost’s trip to western Canada a reunion of sorts.
Walter Cup rematch
The Frost will face the Ottawa Charge four times this season in rematches of last year’s Walter Cup Finals matchup. The first will be a trip to Ottawa on Dec. 2. The Charge are slated to take the ice at Grand Casino Arena on March 18.
