Frost raise championship banner before losing season opener to New York

December 1, 2024

The Walter Cup was in the building Sunday at Xcel Energy Center, and the Minnesota Frost began their PWHL season opener like a team dead set against giving it up.

After watching its championship banner raised to the rafters, Minnesota needed only 21 seconds to score and held a 2-0 lead over the New York Sirens after a dominant first period. The party was rolling, with the announced crowd of 8,022 enjoying every minute, and there were no signs of it ending any time soon.

Then the second period happened, and suddenly the Frost had a fight on their hands.

It was one they wouldn’t win, as the Sirens pulled out a 4-3 victory in overtime.

New York star center Alex Carpenter scored in the third period to give the Sirens a 3-2 lead and produced the game-winning goal 19 seconds into overtime after the Frost’s Dominique Petrie scored late in the third to push the the game to overtime.

“We knew they were going to push,” said Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, who scored the team’s second goal. “You look at the first 20 minutes of everyone’s season, whether it’s rookies making their pro debut or players who were here last year making their Year 2 debut, there is a lot of emotion in the first period.

“We’ve just got to stay on it,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “Their goalie made some huge saves for them, and give them credit. They hung in there. We were trying to put everything we had at them and they found a way to just hang on.”

The Frost outshot the Sirens 15-3 in the first period and 38-20 for the game.

“Overall, when we outshoot teams two to one, I like our chances,” Klee said. “I thought we did a lot of good things in the ‘O’ zone, it’s just finishing our chances. That’s kind of the message after.”

Minnesota’s Grace Zumwinkle scored in the game’s opening minute, beating New York goaltender Corinne Schroeder on a wrist shot in the slot after taking a centering pass from Kelly Pannek.

Coyne Schofield increased the Frost’s lead to 2-0 at 17:46 when she swept in the rebound of a Claire Thompson shot from the left point.

New York cut the Frost’s lead in half at 10:01 of the second period with a power-play goal. Sirens forward Jesse Eldridge beat Frost goaltender Nicole Hensley on a one-timer from the edge of the right-wing circle.

Gabby Rosenthal pulled the Sirens even at 12:59 of the period when she carried the puck out of the left-wing corner to score on a rebound.

Klee spoke often last season of his team’s struggles to finish on good scoring chances, and while the same held true on Sunday, he’s not ready to hang that banner on this team.

“We’ve been working on shooting and scoring, doing the right thing, going to the right areas,” he said. “I thought our puck management was really good a lot of times in the game. We were buzzing.

“If we keep buzzing like that, I know we have a lot of players who are going to find the back of the net.”

Briefly

The Frost play their next two games on the road. They’re back on home ice on December 19 to face Ottawa.

– Pioneer Press