Sceptres Season Ends After Hard Fought OT Battle

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PWHL Toronto Sceptres

Sceptres Season Ends After Hard Fought OT Battle

May 14, 2025 - Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL)
Toronto Sceptres News Release


SAINT PAUL, MN - The reigning Walter Cup champions will return to the PWHL Finals as the Minnesota Frost defeated the Toronto Sceptres 4-3 in overtime on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center to win the best-of-five semifinal series 3-1. Taylor Heise scored the overtime winner at the 16:00 minute mark of the extra frame, securing a Frost victory over the Sceptres for a second straight playoff season. Minnesota was the lower seed in both series and eliminated Toronto last season in five games. The Sceptres opened the scoring at 5:28 in the first period with a goal from Julia Gosling on the first shot of the game. Hannah Miller extended Toronto's lead at 10:33 of the second period but, just 14 seconds later, Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield got the home team on the board- the shortest span between goals in PWHL history. Kelly Pannek tied the game at 18:48, sending the teams into the third period locked 2-2. Emma Maltais regained the lead for Toronto just 58 seconds into the final frame, only to see Minnesota battle back once more with Coyne Schofield's second of the game at 8:33. The Frost's top line accounted for 16 points in three straight wins and had six points tonight, with Coyne Schofield's two goals, two points for Heise, and a pair of assists by Michela Cava. Nicole Hensley returned to the Frost crease for the first time since Game 1 and turned in a 26-save performance in the win. Carly 'CJ' Jackson stopped 22 shots in their playoff debut -just their second start of the season.

Minnesota will defend their title against the winner between the Montréal Victoire and Ottawa Charge. Ottawa leads the series 2-1, with Game 4 of the PWHL Playoffs, presented by SharkNinja, set for Friday.

QUOTES

Frost forward Taylor Heise on the game winning goal: "Actually Kelly (Pannek) yelled at me because I didn't see her come off the ice...and for good reason! I hopped the bench and Grace (Zumwinkle) is great with puck possession, she came around and dished it to me. I gave a shot fake and was hoping to get someone to bite and Brooke (McQuigge) had an amazing screen and shifted like a goaltender. I let it rip and was hoping to keep it low."

Frost Head Coach Ken Klee on the team win: "This is a testament to the group. You look at the leaders Kendall (Coyne Schofield), Lee (Stecklein), and Kelly (Pannek) first and foremost as our captains and our goaltenders are experienced and veterans, and then we have our young players like Taylor (Heise), Britta (Curl-Salemme), Sophie (Jaques) and adding Claire Thompson to our group. We have a young group and we have a veteran group and they've been in these situations a lot. They don't get rattled by it."

Sceptres defender Renata Fast: "I never really felt like it [the game] slipped away. I thought it was a tight game the whole way through, even when we were up 2-0 it was still a tight game. I thought we competed hard the entire game and had our looks and our chances; it just didn't go our way, but never felt like it slipped away."

Toronto Head Coach Troy Ryan: "I think tonight's game, the feeling I have as a coach, is I'm incredibly proud of the effort, the attitude, the playing within our team structure, the battle and compete levels that our group showed throughout that game. I think the last couple of games, the way game three ended, we could have taken an easier route in this one [series], but I thought they showed a ton of character in battling this right to the end. Obviously, putting CJ [Jackson] in goal for that game is, to some extent, putting CJ in a really tough situation, but I thought CJ really answered the call and gave us an opportunity to win."

NOTABLES

Tonight was the first game in PWHL history without any penalties.

The Frost have scored multiple goals in six straight games and 16 goals over their last three games, the most by any team over any three-game span in PWHL history.

All three Game 4s in Minnesota's playoff history have gone to overtime on home ice, with the previous two decided in double-overtime.

Taylor Heise scored a goal and an assist for a third straight multi-point performance (1G, 6A). Her seven points represent the best three-game production in her entire PWHL career. The reigning Playoff MVP also scored the winning goal against Toronto in Game 5 of last year's semifinal series.

Kendall Coyne Schofield recorded her first career playoff multi-goal performance and has produced consecutive multi-point games (2G, 2A) for the first time all season. The captain is the fourth member of the Frost with a multi-goal game this series.

Kelly Pannek scored her first goal in 14 career playoff games and extended her point streak to three games (1G, 3A).

Michela Cava recorded two assists and has consecutive multi-point performances for the first time in her career, and a three-game point streak overall (3G, 2A).

Sophie Jaques recorded a career-high third straight multi-point performance with two assists (2G, 4A). Her stat-line in four games of this series exceeds her 10-game playoff total of a year ago when she led the playoffs in scoring among defenders (2G, 3A).

Julia Gosling scored her rookie-leading third goal of the playoffs, one shy of her regular season total across 30 games.

Hannah Miller scored for the first time in 14 games and had three playoff points in consecutive seasons (1G, 2A).

Emma Maltais recorded her first goal of the series, extending her point streak to a season-high three games (1G, 3A).

Emma Woods collected her second primary assist on a game-opening goal this series (Game 2). Her two helpers in four playoff games are one more than her regular season total in 30 games.

Anna Kjellbin had points in consecutive games for the first time all season (1G, 1A).

Natalie Spooner recorded an assist for her first point in nine games.

Sarah Nurse collected her first point of the series with an assist, tying last season's playoff total.

Izzy Daniel recorded an assist for her first playoff point and the first point of her professional career in her home state of Minnesota.

Brooke McQuigge tallied her first career playoff assist and has a two-game point streak (2G, 1A).

Mellissa Channell-Watkins recorded a helper, extending her point streak to three games (1G, 3A).

Grace Zumwinkle has recorded an assist in two-straight games (2A).

Blayre Turnbull had at least one hit in all nine of her career playoff games.

All 13 periods in the series featured at least one goal scored and eight periods featured multiple tallies.

Both teams had 11 different goal scorers throughout the series.

The first shot on goal by either team came at 5:28 of the first period, ending the longest shotless stretch to open a game by either team in their playoff history. This was the fourth time in PWHL playoff history that a team scored on their first shot of the game, and the first time Toronto scored on their first shot since Feb. 25 against Montréal, a game they lost 3-1.

SCORESHEET RECAP

Toronto 1 1 1 0 - 3

Minnesota 0 2 1 1 - 4

1st Period-1, Toronto, Gosling 3 (Woods, Kjellbin), 5:28. Penalties-No Penalties

2nd Period-2, Toronto, Miller 1 (Spooner), 10:33. 3, Minnesota, Coyne Schofield 1 (Heise, Cava), 10:47. 4, Minnesota, Pannek 1 (McQuigge, Channell-Watkins), 18:48. Penalties-No Penalties

3rd Period-5, Toronto, Maltais 1 (Nurse, Daniel), 0:58. 6, Minnesota, Coyne Schofield 2 (Jaques, Cava), 8:33. Penalties-No Penalties

1st OT Period-7, Minnesota, Heise 1 (Zumwinkle, Jaques), 16:00. Penalties-No Penalties

Shots on Goal-Toronto 9-9-6-5-29. Minnesota 6-4-11-5-26.

Power Play Opportunities-Toronto 0 / 0; Minnesota 0 / 0.

Goalies-Toronto, Jackson (26 shots-22 saves). Minnesota, Hensley (29 shots-26 saves).

A-3,107

THREE STARS

1. Taylor Heise (MIN) 1G, 1A

2. Kendall Coyne Schofield (MIN) 2G

3. Renata Fast (TOR)

SERIES

Minnesota wins the series 3-1 over Toronto

UPCOMING SCHEDULE

Minnesota: Game 1 of the PWHL Finals at Montréal/Ottawa (TBD)



Professional Women's Hockey League Stories from May 14, 2025


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