Sceptres come up flat in first chance to punch their playoff ticket

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It wasn’t the Toronto Sceptres at their best. In fact, it might have been the Sceptres at their very worst, at least as far as this season goes.

In the final game before the PWHL’s 24-day break for the world women’s hockey championship, and with a chance to lock up a playoff spot with anything but a regulation loss, the Sceptres came up as flat as we have seen them in a 5-2 loss to the host Minnesota Frost.

Maybe it was the lengthy road trip – the final day of a 10-day trip that included games in Montreal, Boston and Minnesota — or maybe it was the looming world championship stealing some of the focus away.

Either way, this was not your typical performance by the Sceptres. They gave up four goals in the first two periods before they found any real life.

Among the Sceptres players heading to Czechia for the worlds are eight Canadians (including goaltender Kristin Campbell), three U.S. players, as well as reserve Noemi Neubauerova as a member of the host country’s team.

Campbell’s run of games allowing a goal or fewer ended quickly. She was in the Toronto net for four goals over two periods before she was replaced by backup Raygan Kirk.

Campbell was by no means to blame in this one. Perhaps one of the four goals she might have wanted back, but down 4-0, any kind of change at that point was probably the right one.

Full credit to the Frost, though. Minnesota came out hungry having lost three in a row and had fallen temporarily out of a playoff spot.

Minnesota scored twice in the first 1:43, the fastest two goals to start a game in PWHL history.

Goals by Kali Flanagan and Daryl Watts in the first seven minutes of the third period kept Toronto hopes alive but Taylor Heise’s second goal of the game, on a wraparound, pushed the Frost lead back to three goals and the Frost made that lead stand up.

With the win, Minnesota moved back into a playoff spot, two points ahead of Ottawa. The Charge had grabbed that fourth spot on Saturday with a win over Boston. Ottawa has four regular-season games remaining, Minnesota only three.

mganter@postmedia.com