The Minnesota Frost returned home on Wednesday night, Mar. 18, and faced the Ottawa Charge after being on the road for their recent Takeover Tour Series game on Sunday, Mar. 15. They took down the New York Sirens in the Takeover Tour game and looked to continue that winning streak. Their lineup was the same, with one exception: Kendall Coyne-Schofield and Dominique Petrie remained out, but Peyton Anderson was also out as she served a one-game suspension.
Maddie Rooney was back in the net against the Charge, and the game started out in dramatic fashion as the Frost scored less than 30 seconds into the game. They added three more goals before the period ended and had a commanding lead. The Frost tallied one more goal in the second and held the 5-0 to the end of the game. In this article, we’ll look at a few takeaways, starting with the goal-scoring frenzy.
Frost’s Goal Scoring Frenzy
The Frost once again built a big lead early in the game. The Frost’s and PWHL’s points leader, Taylor Heise, got things going 27 seconds into the game. Safe to say 27 is a good number for her as she threw the puck towards the net from the corner and it went in off the goaltender’s skate, plus it was the day after her birthday. Later in the period, her best friend and teammate, Grace Zumwinkle, scored the Frost’s second goal of the game and it was her third goal in the past two games.
Kelly Pannek added the Frost’s third goal just 11 seconds after the Zumwinkle goal. Finally, the Frost ended the period with their fourth goal; this time, it was Kaitlyn O’Donohoe who tallied her first PWHL career goal. Pannek scored her second of the game late in the second period to give the Frost a 5-0 lead, and that ended up being the final goal of the game.
“Yeah, I mean we don’t see it very often but we were rolling and I think our team was excited, they were making a lot of nice plays, and we were fortunate to get a couple lucky breaks but we’ll take advantage of it, when they’re playing the right way, good things happen,” said head coach Ken Klee to the media after the game about the three quick goals in the early part of the first period.
Frost Kept Pressure
Against the Sirens, the Frost built a big lead but struggled to keep the pressure on and let the Sirens back into the game. The Frost held on just long enough to get the win in regulation, but against the Charge, it was a different story. They continued to push and force shots after they built their first-period lead.
Despite the lead, the Frost continued the pressure through the second and added a goal late in the period to make it 5-0. They also kept their composure when the Charge started to get more physical and didn’t allow themselves to respond. They forced the Charge to try and slow them down, which led to more power plays for the Frost.
The Frost need to take note of how they played against the Charge and play that way in every game. Instead of letting up, they locked it down and kept pushing until the end, and they got the win. Hopefully, they can keep this up and continue to win as they push towards the postseason.
Rooney Continues to Dominate
Maddie Rooney has been dominate since the Olympic break ended, and she was again against the Charge. There weren’t a lot of chances, but she was prepared when they came her way. In a more one-sided game, the goaltender not seeing a lot of action can sometimes get too comfortable, but Rooney stayed alert and ready.
It did get a little busier for her as the game went on, and there were a few close ones, but she or her defenders got to the puck in time. When it got down to the final few minutes, instead of shooting, her teammates elected to play more of a keep-away style with the puck and waste time rather than risk it heading the opposite way, and it worked.
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“Yeah, it wasn’t, it was definitely a team shutout, I felt I wasn’t my most clean in some areas but the team had my back, so it’s good to get the first one,” said Rooney to the media after the game about her shutout and continued, “My puck play was bad, especially the first period so we weathered the storm there and just got some rebounds and did a great job of clearing those and yeah great team shutout.”
The Frost will head on the road for a one-game road trip out west to play the Vancouver Goldeneyes on Saturday, Mar. 21, before finishing up the month at home. Hopefully, they can harness some of this goal scoring and use it against the Goldeneyes to come out with another win.
