Minnesota Frost eliminate Toronto Sceptres in Game 4 to advance to PWHL Final

The Frost entered the playoffs as the No. 4 seed but – as the reigning champions – were still narrowly favored to win the series against the No. 2 Sceptres, according to Dom Luszczyszyn’s model, with a 21 percent chance at winning in four games.

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Toronto won the first game of the series on home ice, but Minnesota won three-straight – including a wild 7-5 win in Game 3 on Sunday night – to take the best-of-five series 3-1. It’s the second consecutive year that the Frost have beaten Toronto in the semifinals to advance to the Finals.

Minnesota will await the winner of the Ottawa Charge-Montreal Victoire series, which Ottawa leads 2-1.

In the meantime, here’s some takeaways from Game 4.

Toronto’s goalie change

In her last two games of the series, Sceptres starter Kristen Campbell allowed 12 goals on 49 shots, with a 4.75 goals against average and .813 save percentage through the first round of the playoffs.

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So, with their season on the line, head coach Troy Ryan made a big change, starting Carly ‘CJ’ Jackson, who is typically Toronto’s No. 3 goalie. With backup Raygan Kirk on long-term injury reserve and Campbell struggling, Jackson was pushed into a pressure cooker.

In the first period, Toronto did a nice job keeping Minnesota to the perimeter. The Frost only had six shots in the frame and Jackson stopped them all. In the second, Minnesota only managed four shots, but did well to get to the net-front and make Jackson’s job harder despite the lighter workload.

First, Coyne Schofield getting her stick on a ripped shot by Heise only 14 seconds after Toronto made it 2-0. Then Kelly Pannek got in front of Jackson for a tip off a Brooke McQuigge shot. With two goals on four shots, Minnesota had life heading into the third period.

Starting a seldom-used goalie over his starter was a risky move by Ryan. Jackson had only started one game in two years in the PWHL: a 2-1 shootout win versus the New York Sirens on April 29. And while they did well for most of the game, Toronto’s goaltending struggles were put into perspective when, at the other end of the ice, Minnesota coach Ken Klee was able to tap Nicole Hensley after Maddie Rooney’s tough game (five goals on 23 shots) on Sunday.

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Hensley, by the way, made 26 saves on 29 shots on Wednesday night, including several big stops late in the game and throughout overtime.

Coyne Schofield delivers

No player was better at five-on-five in the regular season than Coyne Schofield and she put that on display in Game 4, with two even-strength goals at critical points of the night.

Her first goal effectively halted Toronto’s momentum in the second period. Then she buried a rebound to make it 3-3 midway through the third period to ultimately force overtime.