Toronto Sceptres' season ends with OT loss to Frost

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The Toronto Sceptres had their chances in overtime, but for the second year in a row came out on the short end of a PWHL semifinal series with the Minnesota Frost.

Taylor Heise scored the game-winner 16 minutes into overtime beating Carly (CJ) Jackson low to the blocker side to give the Frost a 4-3 overtime win and a 3-1 win in the series and end Toronto’s season for a second year in a row.

Toronto had leads of 1-0, 2-0, 2-1 and 3-2 in the game but each time the Frost crawled back to tie it.

The teams came into the third period tied, but a little over a minute in to the period, Emma Maltais, who had not scored in 13 games, found some space on the edge of the circle and took a nice corner pass from Sarah Nurse.

Maltais spun and fired a half slap, half snap shot that Hensley had no time to react to and beat the Minnesota goalie to the far side to give Toronto the lead again.

Minnesota captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield got that one back less than eight minutes later after she swept at a rebound off a touch Sophie Jaques shot and found the tiniest of holes just inside the post to beat Jackson.

It was Coyne-Scofield’s second goal of the game. She also tipped a Heise shot past Jackson in the second period to get Minnesota on the board.

Julia Gosling opened the scoring for Toronto with her third goal of the series, beating Hensley clean through the pads on a breakaway. Hannah Miller made it 2-0 with her first in 13 games, as well off a nice feed from Natalie Spooner behind the Minnesota net.

Kelly Pannek had Minnesota’s other goal.

Toronto head coach Troy Ryan had a tough call to make pre-game and opted to go with little-used third string goaltender Jackson over his struggling No. 1 Kristen Campbell. Jackson, whose first and only PWHL action came just over two weeks ago, answered the call for her team in a big way. The three goals Jackson allowed in regulation all came off tips, and Heise’s game-winner came through plenty of traffic.

FAST UP FOR AWARD

Renata Fast of the Toronto Sceptres and Minnesota Frost teammates Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson are the finalists for the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s defender of the year award.

Fast had six goals and 16 assists in 30 games to tie Jaques for the scoring lead among defenders this season and led the league in hits (63) and total ice time (739 minutes 45 seconds).

The 30-year-old from Burlington, Ont., opened the season on a six-game point streak.

Jaques had seven goals and 15 assists in 25 games, a 12-point improvement over her 2024 campaign.

The 24-year-old from Toronto ranked second among defenders with a plus-12 rating.

Thompson finished third in scoring from the blue-line with 18 points in 30 games, She became the second player in league history to record four points in a game in a 5-2 win over Ottawa on Dec. 20.

The 27-year-old from Toronto is in her first PWHL season after a year away from hockey to focus on her medical studies.

All three players were set to take the ice later Wednesday as the Frost and Sceptres continued their semifinal series. The Frost entered the game with a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five set.

Winners of all PWHL awards will be announced on June 25 at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Ottawa.

Erin Ambrose of the Montreal Victoire won the inaugural defender of the year award last season.

mganter@postmedia.com

With files from The Canadian Press