With expansion draft looming, it really is the end of a Sceptres era

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For the second year in a row, the Toronto Sceptres season came to a premature end at the hands of the Minnesota Frost.

The defending Walter Cup champs put themselves in position to win a second title with a determined offensive push and a never-say-die attitude that has served them well throughout two PWHL seasons.

Taylor Heise, who will go down in league history as the first ever pick in a PWHL draft, ended this one 16 minutes into overtime on a well-placed shot from the top of the circle with the big body of Brooke McQuigge and Toronto defender Kali Flanagan ensuring goalkeeper Carly (CJ) Jackson never saw the shot until it was already by them.

It was a heartbreaking loss for a team that ran into a goaltending problem at the worst possible time of the year that put them in a hole out of which they did not escape.

The Sceptres had a 1-0 lead in this series and looked poised to make that 2-0 before a pair of harmless-looking shots found their way past Toronto starting goaltender Kristen (Soupy) Campbell, letting Minnesota back into the series.

Once back, the Frost did not falter steam-rolling the Sceptres in Game 3 in a 7-5 derby that set a record for goals scored in a PWHL game.

A 3-0 deficit just under eight minutes into that one, this time an overall team defensive letdown as opposed to strictly soft goals, was the culprit.

Again the Sceptres regrouped getting to within a goal on a few occasions only to see the Frost regain control of the game each time Toronto got close.

And while Game 4 was the ultimate eliminator for the Sceptres, it was a game of few regrets for the losing side, short of the final result.

“I think tonight’s game, the feeling that I have as a coach, I’m incredibly proud of the effort, the attitude, the playing within our team structure, the battle level and the compete level our team showed throughout that game,” head coach Troy Ryan said. “I think the way Game 2 and Game 3 ended, our team could have taken an easier route in this one but I thought they showed a ton of character in battling this one right to the end.”

Perhaps the saddest part about coming up short this year is it probably means the core of this team as constructed coming into the inaugural season and maintained into Year 2 will never get the chance to see what they could do in a Final.

Expansion is already here and that means two new teams in the PWHL in Vancouver and Seattle next year and with it will come at least some dismantling of the core of the club GM Gina Kingsbury and Ryan put together to bring Toronto championships.

The league has made its intent clear from the beginning of the expansion process. The goal is to make the incoming teams competitive to start and that means all existing teams will have some of their key roster components stripped away.

We don’t how deep the cuts will go just yet, but there is talk that even the foundational players, the three original picks the league’s six original clubs made in advance of the first draft, could be exposed in the draft.

Executive vice president of hockey operations Jayna Hefford has yet to unveil the league expansion draft plans and likely won’t until a second Walter Cup champion is decided, but stocking two incoming teams to be immediately competitive can only mean all six existing clubs are going to get picked over.

The Sceptres will look back on this second season with pride eventually, but in the immediate aftermath of Wednesday’s 4-3 OT loss, there was only disappointment.

They will look back on the overtime chances they had to extend this series to a fifth game back at Coca Cola Coliseum – the breakaway from Hayley Scamurra early in the extra frame of Game 4 where she had a chance to get the puck over a fallen Nicole Hensley but couldn’t get her stick under the puck, or chances by both Blayre Turnbull and Renata Fast on either side of the Minnesota net again with Hensley again in a vulnerable position and failing to get their respective sticks on bouncing pucks that seemed to have eyes for the back of the net.

It truly is a game of inches and it’s moments like those that will stay with the Sceptres through a summer of what if.

We have no doubt this organization will be back a year from now with a team capable of breaking through with that ultimate goal of a Walter Cup championship season regardless of what goes on at the expansion draft. Kingsbury and Ryan are a formidable duo with the knowledge and experience to make that happen.

There will be a healthy return of some familiar faces but the growth of the league around them will ensure that first group, the group that got this thing started and was so ready to win, won’t ever get that chance again.

And for those that have been there since the beginning, that is the saddest part of all about Wednesday’s loss.

mganter@postmedia.com