A Frosty Repeat

For the fourth time in four games between the Ottawa Charge and the Minnesota Frost, the final score was 2-1 in overtime. The difference in the best-of-five PWHL Walter Cup Final was that Minnesota won three-straight games by that decision to capture their second-straight Walter Cup as back-to-back champions. The day was significant for the Frost as they had a shot at winning the PWHL championship on May 26 in 2024, but the Boston Fleet won that game in double-overtime. This year, they made no mistake in winning in overtime on that date to capture the Walter Cup as repeat champions. For the second time in as many PWHL seasons, the Walter Cup will call Minneapolis-St. Paul home once again!

Goals by Minnesota's Kelly Pannek and Ottawa's Tereza Vanišová pushed the game into overtime where we got our winner.
Minnesota native Liz Schepers, playing on the Frost's fourth line, whacked home her second goal of the playoffs as the Golden Goal, pushing the Frost to the championship in the 2-1 overtime victory. Schepers' other goal opened the scoring in the May 11 victory for the Frost where they defeated the Toronto Sceptres by a 7-5 score, but she saved her best for the very last goal of the season as she writes her name into the history books with her goal tonight.

Schepers hadn't scored against the Charge this season, entering the series with a -1 rating and just five shots to her name. She had recorded two shots in Game Three, but it was Game Four where her lone shot on net was the difference in capturing the Walter Cup. Her success against Ottawa maybe shouldn't come as a surprise because this is the second year where her goal against a team in the final was the biggest goal scored of her entire season.

"We got a taste of it a little bit last year, and we really came into this game with, you know, feeling like there was no tomorrow, like we wanted to get this done here and do it the right way," Schepers told MPR News' Anna Haecherl.

I'll encourage the Frost to consider protecting Schepers in the upcoming PWHL Expansion Draft because she seems to be their lucky charm in the Walter Cup Final. Her lone playoff goal last season was the game- and championship-winner against Boston, and her second playoff goal this season turned out to be the game- and championship-winner against Ottawa! Has any other player had that kind of goal-scoring timing? Hint: NO. Something to consider, right?

Where Minnesota out-gunned Ottawa in this final, though, was through depth scoring. I had made mention that Ottawa had to find more scoring from their stars following their Game One victory, but that never happened for the Charge. Instead, Minnesota got game-winners from Britta Curl-Salemme, Katy Knoll, and Schepers to push them past the Charge for their second championship as the Minnesota depth - led by Knoll's three points and Claire Thompson's four assists in the final - carried them to another on-ice celebration.

"I think when you look at the way we won, it takes everybody," Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said after the game, and she's entirely right. Minnesota had 23 players play in playoff games this season with 15 players recording points. Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley nearly split games evenly with Rooney holding a 5-3 edge in games played by the goalies, and every player on the Minnesota roster played three games or more. It was truly an "everybody on the roster" effort in these playoffs for the Frost, and they earned their second-straight championship through that team-first effort.

Ottawa will need to regroup if they hope to make a run like they did this season. They can look at the bright spots in the playoffs and know they deserved to be there, but there is still work to be done. Netminder Gwyneth Philips won the Ilana Kloss Trophy as playoff MVP after finishing the playoffs with a 4-4 record, a 1.23 GAA, and a .952 save percentage. All four of her losses came in overtime where she made 148 saves of the 270 shots she faced, but she pointed out that she was buoyed by her teammates despite falling short.

"Right now the individual award is superseded by the team loss," Philips lamented. "We were so close and we really wanted that, but my accomplishments are attributed to the players in front of me. So maybe tomorrow will be nicer, but I really wanted to win."

Of course, things will change rapidly for both teams in the coming weeks as the Expansion Draft and Entry Draft will happen within the month of June, so several players will be dressing in new colours and cities before the free agency period hits. Brianne Jenner, captain of the Charge, was quick to reflect on the coming changes, but was clearly present in experiencing this heartbreak.

"I think that’s the toughest part," Jenner said, referring to this loss and the upcoming subtraction of key players who contributed to Ottawa's success. "That was a special run. And it's going to sting for a while, for sure. But really, really proud of this group."

As one squad celebrates for the next two weeks while the other goes back to work, six teams will grow to eight as the PWHL officially gets Vancouver and Seattle off the ground. All eight teams will retool and sign and draft players they hope can be the next Liz Schepers who will score a championship-winning goal for that respective team, and we'll see who emerges victorious when the Walter Cup is awarded for the third time. Could it be Schepers and Minnesota in a three-peat?

We'll know soon enough, but for now the victors get the spoils as congratulations go to the Minnesota Frost as the 2025 Walter Cup champions and the first-ever repeat and two-time Walter Cup champions in PWHL history! The quest for the three-peat starts soon!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!