3 Takeaways From the Frost’s 2-0 Loss to the Sceptres – The Hockey Writers – Minnesota Frost

The Minnesota Frost finished up the home portion of their regular season on Sunday afternoon, Apr. 19, against the Toronto Sceptres. The Frost’s playoff position was secured, but they had a chance to eliminate the Sceptres who were on the outside looking in. The lineup was back to its normal look as Natalie Buchbinder, Klárá Hymlárová, and Grace Zumwinkle were all back after being out with injuries. 

Maddie Rooney was back in the net, and the game started out in favor of the Sceptres who scored an early goal that gave them the lead. They protected the lead the rest of the period, through the second, and into the third. Unfortunately for the Frost, they couldn’t convert, and they fell 2-0. In this article, we’ll look at a few takeaways, starting with the Frost’s lack of energy. 

Frost Energy Inconsistent

This game was kind of an odd one in terms of energy, at least for the Frost. The Sceptres whose postseason was on the line, had their foot on the gas the entire game; the Frost, on the other hand, struggled. They had chances, and quite a few of them, but they couldn’t consistently keep the puck going the other way. 

It’s not that they played a bad game either; they did what they could to limit the Sceptres’ chances and played them fairly tight, but they couldn’t elude them either. That up-and-down energy continued through the game as they tried to convert, but were continuously denied. 

“Yeah, I think like coach was saying earlier. I think we did a lot of things better than we have our last few games, kind of building off some of the things we did well in Boston. I think at this point in the season, you’re playing a team that they’re playing playoff style hockey because they have to and that’s something I think that has benefitted us actually in these last few years, maybe more so last year, we were trying to win games to make it in at the end but playing those teams that are playing playoff style hockey, I think that’s something we’re trying to get in that mindset of how do we play that way…,” said Kelly Pannek to the media after the game about the team’s efforts overall.

Frost’s Special Teams Step Backward 

After having a pretty solid run with their power play and penalty kill, both took a hit against the Sceptres. The first goal of the game was on the Frost’s penalty kill and was just three seconds into the kill. It was a textbook play of winning the faceoff back to the point, that player stepped in a bit and took a shot that rifled past Rooney in goal.

The Frost were pretty disciplined from that point on, but the Sceptres weren’t and gave the Frost ample chances to get back in the game. Their power play looked strong, and they had shots but couldn’t get them to go in. They had five chances on the power play, and although they got set up, they couldn’t score. The Sceptres secured the win late in the third with their second power play goal of the game. 

“Oh, that happens all the time, all the time. Yeah, it’s easy to look at the stat line, sometimes it’s a little misleading, like for me personally, like if I look at only one shot, but I was part of offense, part of creating chances, getting myself in the area where it’s threatening. I think I could obviously shoot it more, and there’s elements to that as well, but yeah, I think power play is going to be a big one. We know that coming down the stretch, in playoffs, power play is huge, like tonight we lost the game, we lost the special teams battle, and that’s pretty simple. A lot of times in playoffs, you look at the Wild last night, they dominated the power play, they win the game…,” said Pannek to the media after the game when asked about the team’s struggles being one-time things like the power play not being successful on five chances.

Frost’s Pannek Hits 100 Games

While the Frost didn’t have any scoring milestones, they did have one in the games played department, and that was Kelly Pannek hitting 100 games. That does include the postseason, and she did it all for one team as well. She’s an alternate captain for the Frost and has been one of their leaders since the team was formed. She’s taken a huge step forward in her play as well, and although it didn’t translate against the Sceptres, she kept trying until the final whistle. 

“Yeah, I had no idea until Kendall (Coyne-Schofield), after the game, had mentioned it, but it’s pretty cool. I think I pride myself on being available to my team and being someone who can play, if I’m feeling great, if I’m not, but there was a stretch, I think it was last year, where I was like pretty sick, honestly, and trying to like battle through it because my team needed me too. So I’ve always been very proud to be a member of this team and obviously we accomplished a lot which helps me get to that milestone, when you’re playing the max number of games pretty much both years and I know looking back on it like it’s something that these first three years for sure, just seeing the growth of this league but also being able to be a part of it and have the success that we’ve had, has been really special,” Pannek said to the media after the game about hitting 100 games.

The Frost will head on the road for the final two games of their regular season. The first game will be on Wednesday evening, Apr. 22, against the Seattle Torrent, and they’ll finish up against the Vancouver Goldeneyes on Saturday, Apr. 25