The Minnesota Frost and the Ottawa Charge faced off for Game 2 of the Walter Cup Final on Thursday evening, May 22, in Ottawa. The Charge looked to take a commanding 2-0 series lead while the Frost looked to tie the series up 1-1 after falling in overtime in Game 1. The Frost had the same lineup with the exception of the goaltender; Maddie Rooney took over for Nicole Hensley.
The Charge have been without both Jincy Roese and Emerance Maschmeyer since the beginning of the postseason, but they added Kateřina Mrázová when she left Game 1 during the third period and hasn’t come back to the lineup. It was another close game that was scoreless until the final three minutes of regulation when the Charge got on the board.
The Frost answered back with under 30 seconds to go to force overtime, and they went on to get the overtime win with less than five minutes to go. We’ll look at how they did it, starting with the goaltending of Rooney.
Rooney Steps Up
The Frost have a strong goaltending tandem, and it’s shown for the second postseason in a row. Both goaltenders had strong games in their semi-final as Hensley was in for Game 1, Rooney had Games 2 and 3, and then Hensley finished it out in Game 4. Hensley was in for Game 1 against the Charge, and now Rooney took over for Game 2.
She was solid from the drop of the first puck, and the only goal scored on her was more a breakdown from the defense in front of her rather than her outright missing the shot. She made a total of 37 saves out of 38 shots for a save percentage of .974. There were some very close calls throughout the game, and she was ready for all but one. She even jumped into a play early on in the game where a Charge player tried to drive across the crease, and Rooney poke-checked the puck right off her stick before she could get the shot off.
Rooney will likely be in the net for Game 3, but regardless of which goaltender it is, the Frost know they can rely on whoever it is. Both goaltenders are capable of stepping up in must-win situations, and hopefully, they can do so on home ice.
Frost’s Offensive Production
The Frost continues to have different players step up to produce, and this time it was Britta Curl-Salemme. She’s proven herself as a goal scorer and in Game 2 she continued to show it. She had three shots throughout the game and converted on two of those three. She’s a player who likes to crash the net, and that was how she scored the first goal of the game. She was waiting in the slot for a shot to come in, and she knocked in the rebound to force overtime.
Her second goal was almost crashing the net but she didn’t make it all the way. Instead she followed Mellissa Channell-Watkins who carried the puck all the way to the goaltender, took a shot, and Curl-Salemme took care of the rebound once again. This time her shot came from the hash-marks but it still made it in and sealed the deal for the Frost to tie the series. If they want to keep winning games, they’ll need Curl-Salemme to keep scoring goals and her linemates to follow her lead.
While Curl-Salemme had the goals, all of the assists belonged to defenders. Claire Thompson assisted on both goals while Lee Stecklein and Channell-Watkings picked up the other assists. The Frost knows how to score goals on the Charge, and they need to keep pushing the rebounds, and they’ll find success.
Frost’s Special Teams Tell Story
Once again the Frost’s special teams had a good and bad storyline in their game. Their power play continued to struggle after being strong against the Sceptres. They had five chances on the power play, and although they did have some chances, they spent more time in their own end than they did in the offensive end. The Charge nearly scored while shorthanded not just once but twice.
The Frost have to figure out what is causing the issues on their power play, whether it be a lack of confidence or changing who’s on it, but they need their power play to start producing. On the other hand, their penalty kill was on top of things. They only took two penalties compared to the Charge’s five, so they kept themselves in check when it came to being overly physical and avoided the box as much as possible.
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Hopefully, the Frost can keep their penalty kill going the way it has been, but also find a way to produce on the power play. If they had converted on at least one of their power-play chances, this game could’ve been over a lot sooner than overtime.
Frost Head Home
The series will now move to Minnesota for the next two games. Game 3 will take place on Saturday, May 24, and Game 4 will take place on Memorial Day, Monday, May 26. The Frost will need to up their game even more from Games 1 and 2, and hopefully they’ll be able to get the next win to get a lead in the series.
