Sceptres not happy with early exit but they can at least live with this one

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The finish point didn’t change much at all for the Toronto Sceptres in the second year of the PWHL, but the feeling about that finish is vastly different.

A year ago at this time, members of Toronto’s PWHL entry were still visibly angry at a series days after it ended in which they won the first two games and then lost three in a row to earn a spectator’s seat in the first PWHL Walter Cup Final.

They will be watching again as the same team that ended their season a year ago, the Minnesota Frost. attempts to win a second consecutive Walter Cup championship against the Ottawa Charge.

Ottawa won its semifinal series on Friday, defeating the Montreal Victoire 2-1 to take the series three games to one.

The disappointment at not being there remains the same. What’s different is the Sceptres go into this off-season knowing they were playing at or very near their best when they went down to the Frost this year.

Captain Blayre Turnbull reiterated a previously stated opinion that the Sceptres’ Game 1 win in the series, the lone one they would enjoy, was probably the most complete game they played all season.

Game 2 wasn’t far behind if you eliminate the final five minutes of the game, in which the Frost got a pair of goals to steal a win on visiting ice.

Neither goal — the game-winner by Sophie Jaques nor the insurance marker from Melissa Channel-Watkins — were what anyone would consider Grade A chances but they found their way into the back of the net and suddenly a series the Sceptres thought they were in control of was heading across the border to Minnesota all tied up.

The first eight minutes of Game 3 sealed Toronto’s fate, as the Frost scored three unanswered goals before the Sceptres could find their game.

Again, they did find it and managed five goals of their own, but when the hosts had tallied seven, it just wasn’t enough.

Game 4 was carried for the most part by Toronto, but went Minnesota’s way when Taylor Heise settled matters 16 minutes into overtime with a goal off a nice screen from Brooke McQuigge.

No one in the Sceptres organization was happy with the result then or now. However, at the very least they can look back on it knowing they played well enough to win, but a few goaltending breakdowns and a few missed opportunities were enough to turn in the tide in Minnesota’s favour.

“I feel like reflecting on the year, all season it seemed like we were trying to be the best team that we could be and then it felt like things started clicking for us in the playoffs,” Turnbull said. “Our playoff games were the best games we played all season so it’s a disappointing feeling when you can say that and still not get the results you want, but it’s also a good feeling knowing that we were happy with our playoff performance. We just came up short.”

Given the opportunity to run it back one more time with the same group, chances are pretty good Toronto management would take their chances, but they’re not going to get that opportunity.

The PWHL expansion into Vancouver and Seattle for next season necessitates an expansion draft to start stocking those two organizations with players, and the league has been clear from the first mention of pending expansion that those markets will be set up to compete right away.

Sceptres GM Gina Kingsbury has revealed that front offices of the six PWHL teams have recently been apprised of a rough look at what that will mean for the existing clubs. While some of the rules have yet to be worked out, she’s expecting every existing team will lose at least some quality players.

“The GMs have been briefed on the direction the league is likely going to take,” Kingsbury said. “I think there’s still fine-tuning and tweaking around some of the rules, but we’ve been briefed and brought up to speed about what it’s going to look like moving forward.

“The priority of the league is to have parity, so I expect Vancouver and Seattle to be very competitive next season right off the bat, so in order for that to happen all of us (the existing original six teams) are going to have to lose some pretty competitive players to make sure we are still fighting one-goal games and still battling until the last game of the season to see who makes playoffs.”

It’s not an ideal situation for a team such as Toronto, which is hoping to use the lessons learned from two short playoff experiences to take a run at a longer one in Season 3, but it is part of growing the women’s game, which is what this league was set up to do in the first place.

“Two years ago, we didn’t have a league,” Kingsbury said. “We didn’t have this platform for these players to play in …. As much as (the expansion process) is challenging and stressful and we’re all losing sleep over it, it’s pretty exciting to be a part of a league that is growing and providing the opportunities that we were dreaming about not too long ago.”

The expansion draft is tentatively set for the middle of June with the third annual PWHL draft to follow in Ottawa on June 24.

mganter@postmedia.com