Minnesota Frost clinch PWHL playoff series with overtime victory over Toronto Sceptres

They’re not going back to Toronto.

The Frost canceled 7 a.m. plane reservations Thursday bound for Toronto and a potential deciding Game 5 in their PWHL first-round playoff series. They did so after their 4-3 home overtime victory Wednesday beat Toronto in four games.

Defeating Toronto in the semifinals for the second consecutive season advances the Frost to the Walter Cup Finals.

The defending champs will defend their title against either Montreal or Ottawa, who will play Game 4 of their best-of-five series Friday. Ottawa leads 2-1.

Those two teams played four overtimes to determine Montreal the 3-2 winner in Game 2 of their series.

The Frost, in turn, needed only 16 minutes of overtime Wednesday to eliminate Toronto 3-1 before an announced crowd of 3,107 at Xcel Energy Center. Young star Taylor Heise scored the winner, then skated into the boards in celebration after her team trailed 2-0 in the second period and 3-2 in the third.

“We did not want it to go to four overtimes, definitely not,” Klee said. “It was one of those crazy games. Every game in the playoffs is a little different. This one took on a personality of its own.”

“It one of those things,” Klee said. “They were going to let the players decide. It’s OK by me. I think the players would agree. Let them hash it out. Both teams played super hard.”

The Frost’s top line of Heise, captain Kendall Coyne Schofield and Michela Cava took a team that prides itself on contributions from everybody and carried it on their collective backs, combining for six points.

Coyne Schofield scored twice, Cava had two assists, Heise had an assist to go with her game-winning goal.

Heise celebrated by leading a mob across the ice, in her own way.

“I don’t really know what I was doing, to be honest with you,” Heise said. “It was relief to know how hard we work. It’s really hard in an elimination game to end a team’s season at the end of their season.”

“It takes everybody in little ways and big ways,” Coyne Schofield said.

After Toronto’s Hannah Miller made it 2-0 midway through the second period, the Frost took just 14 seconds to answer with Coyne Schofield’s deflected goal off Heise’s shot. When Toronto’s Emma Maltais made it 3-2 in the third period’s first minute, Coyne Schofield answered seven minutes later by shoveling the tying backhander from goal’s edge.

“We came back with a vengeance and a fire,” Heise said.

This time, the Frost didn’t need a deciding fifth game to advance. They did it in just four.

“Prepare for the moment, embrace the moment,” Coyne Schofield said. “If you’re looking for confidence, just look to the left and to the right and your answer is right there. I think the belief in the room is there, and that’s what is most important.”