The Minnesota Frost hosted the Toronto Sceptres for Game 3 in Round 1 on Mother’s Day Sunday, May 11. The Frost took Game 2 despite being without one of their scorers in Britta Curl-Salemme, who was serving a one-game suspension, but was back in the lineup for Game 3, and Maddie Rooney was back in net once again.
The Frost brought their A game as they jumped out to an early lead, but they were ready when the Sceptres pushed hard to get back in the game. There were some bumps along the way, but the Frost came out with the win 7-5. We’ll look at how they did it, starting with the depth scoring.
Frost Continue Depth Scoring
The Frost jumped out to an early three-goal lead in the first period thanks to more of their depth players stepping up. Their third line was responsible for the first goal of the game, which gave them the jump in their game that they needed. Liz Schepers received a pass from Klára Hymlárová, and she made it count. Her teammates followed suit, with Brooke McQuigge and Lee Stecklein adding goals of their own, including two for McQuigge.
The scoring continued as the game continued, and Sophie Jaques and Michela Cava also had goals. Cava got the top line going with goals while her linemates racked up assists. 12 players on the roster registered at least one point, and seven had multiple points. This is how the Frost won Game 2 as well, with depth scoring. Of course, they need their top line to produce, which they did, but it’s not as hard when the rest of your lineup is also scoring.
“Yeah for us, we know our depth is one of our strengths, I feel like and we try to rely on it when we need to and definitely we’re getting scoring from, Liz (Schepers) had a huge goal for us to start the game and she doesn’t get a lot of offensive opportunities a lot, so it was a huge goal for her, a huge goal for the team. Like you said, the d have been contributing a lot. Lee’s (Stecklein) been outstanding lately, she’s finding a way to get herself on the scoresheet as well as play solid defensively, so it’s just about us being a.. We’re just trying to be the best team; we’re not trying to be the best player or individual. That’s something we kind of preach from Day 1, and we know it worked for us last year, so we’re trying the best we can to keep it going,” said head coach Ken Klee after his team’s Game 3 win.
Frost’s Special Teams Key
The Frost were a lot more careful on the physical side in Game 3. They mostly appeared to learn they have to watch it when it comes to big hits. When they made a mistake, their penalty kill was ready to kill it off. They only took two penalties, both to Maggie Flaherty, but her teammates stepped up and got the job done to keep their team in the lead.
Their power play also found a way to keep it going after scoring two goals in Game 2; they added two more in Game 3. The best part was that different players got the power play tallies, so they have depth on the power play as well as throughout the whole lineup.
“Yeah, just committing to our game plan. You never know what game’s going to be in front of you with the way we stuck to our structure, stuck together through the ups and downs of that game it says a lot about our team and our character and there was never any doubt that we were going to close this one out,” said Liz Schepers about her team’s efforts in Game 3.
Frost’s Rooney Steps Up
Rooney was between the net in Game 2, and her strong play earned her the net again in Game 3. Nicole Hensley did well in Game 1, but Rooney appeared to have the Sceptres mastered, and she kept it going. She allowed several goals, but one was because her defense broke down and left a player wide open to the side of the net, and it was too late. It was a rare breakdown during the game as the Frost had done well to clean up any of their mistakes quickly.
The second goal was a great shot from the point that Rooney likely never saw, and the third resulted from too many players in front of Rooney for her to see the puck in time. Pretty much every goal that got by Rooney was a deflection or screen and not a reflection of her actual play in the net.
Related: Dubois Scores OT Winner for Victoire, Defeat Charge 3-2 in Historic 4OT Game 2
“I think obviously it was a good offensive game for both teams. I think it’s just about cleaning up, little things, getting pucks deep at the red line, and just focusing on the little things that we know we can do as a team and use our speed. We all know that five goals against is not the way we wanted the game to go. So I think we’ll really clean that up and just continue to score goals,” said Cava about what they need to do next game.
Frost Stay Home
The Frost have set the stage for them to eliminate the Sceptres on home ice. They’ll have a few days to rest before Game 4 on Wednesday, May 14, and they’ll have to be ready because the Sceptres will be playing for their postseason lives. Hopefully, the Frost can build off this win and get it done to move on to the Walter Cup Final.
