TORONTO (May 9, 2025) – Lee Stecklein led the Minnesota Frost to a 5-3 win over the Toronto Sceptres Friday night at Coca-Cola Coliseum, scoring two goals and adding an assist to help even the series at 1-1. The Sceptres took a 1-0 lead after the first period, thanks to a goal from Hayley Scamurra, but Stecklein’s two goals, along with a tally from Michela Cava, helped Minnesota storm back with three straight goals in the second period to make the score 3-1. Toronto responded with a quick two-goal burst from Savannah Harmon and Allie Munroe just 27 seconds apart in the final minutes of the frame, tying the game at 3-3 heading into the third period. However, it was Toronto native Sophie Jaques who scored the game-winning goal for the visitors at 13:47 of the final frame, while Mellissa Channell-Watkins added an insurance marker to seal the win. Maddie Rooney earned the victory in her first start of the series, making 27 saves, while Kristen Campbell stopped 20 shots for Toronto in the loss.
Game Three of the best-of-five PWHL Playoffs, presented by SharkNinja, is set to take place at 6 p.m. ET in Minnesota on Sunday at Xcel Energy Center.
QUOTES
Frost Head Coach Ken Klee on the play of Lee Stecklein: “She was outstanding. Obviously, she’s known as a world-class defensive defender. Always has a good stick, good gap and is hard to play against. Tonight, she was feeling it. Driving the net and had the little tip play. You know it’s the playoffs, we know we have to find different ways to score goals and different people have to contribute. She knows that she exemplifies that and that’s why she’s one of our leaders and one of our best players and she was awesome.”
Frost defender Lee Stecklein on her recent hot streak: “It goes back to our team and the way we’ve been playing these last few games has opened up some things. Obviously, we have some offensive threats and people they have to be worried about which opens up some stuff and you just have to be ready to take advantage of it. Luckily, it’s gone my way so far.”
Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney on her relationship with Nicole Hensley: “I’m just really grateful for the friendship we have as a goalie duo. The support has been there for the last seven years and, like I said, whoever is in net for the night we’re just there on the bench making sure we do what we do to support one another, and we have a lot of fun.”
Toronto defender Savannah Harmon on the similarities and differences between the first two games of the series: “I think we had a good start in the first period, second period not as much. Third period we found our game a little bit more, but compared to the other game, we played our game for the whole 60 minutes and we were missing that tonight.”
Sceptres Head Coach Troy Ryan on Maggie Connors playing with Emma Maltais: “Maggie is playing well, playing hard and trying to make hard plays on the wall, trying to get pucks deep. I thought she possessed the puck really well. Maltais played well as well, a couple nice plays, couple good defensive plays as well and did a great job in the faceoff circle for someone who hasn’t played in the middle a lot recently.”
NOTABLES
The Frost are the first team in PWHL playoff history to score five goals in a game. This was also the 13th time (regular-season and playoffs) that the Frost have scored 4+ goals in regulation –– they have won all of those games.
Minnesota now has seven all-time playoff goals from defenders, including four in tonight's game. In comparison, all other PWHL teams combined have scored four, with two of those coming from Toronto tonight.
Lee Stecklein scored twice, her first career playoff tallies, giving her five goals in her last four games. She became the first defender to record a three-point game in PWHL playoff history and just the third player overall, joining teammates Taylor Heise and Michela Cava, who each accomplished the feat in Game 1 of last year’s PWHL Finals. She is also the first player in PWHL history to have three points in a single playoff period.
Sophie Jaques scored her first goal of the postseason and third of her PWHL playoff career, setting a league for the most career playoff goals by a defender. She also recorded an assist in the game, marking her third career multi-point playoff game.
Claire Thompson recorded two assists, giving her points in each of her first two playoff games. She tallied 14 assists in the regular season, finishing third among defenders and ninth overall in the category.
Mellissa Channell-Watkins scored her first career postseason goal, the insurance marker in the third period on the power play. She had four assists in ten playoff games with Minnesota last season.
Cava scored her first goal of the postseason, while Heise recorded two assists to hit the scoresheet for the first time this series. The duo tied for the PWHL playoff scoring lead last year with eight points each.
Kelly Pannek recorded her first two points of the postseason with a pair of assists – her first multi-assist game of 2024-25. She had two assists in ten games during Minnesota's playoff run last season.
Dominique Petrie recorded her first career PWHL playoff point with an assist on Stecklein’s second goal. She ranked fourth among all rookies in regular-season assists with seven in 18 games.
Hayley Scamurra recorded her first career PWHL playoff goal in tonight’s game. The goal also marks her second tally of the 2024–25 season; she scored her first of the year on Mar. 26 against Boston.
Savannah Harmon scored her first career PWHL playoff goal and her first goal of the season in her 32nd game and 26th with the Sceptres. The defender recorded three goals last season with Ottawa.
Allie Munroe scored her first career playoff goal and her second goal of the season. It was also her first goal since being named an alternate captain on May 2.
Emma Maltais recorded her first career two-point playoff game, collecting two assists. She had a goal and an assist over five playoff games last season. It was just her second multi-point game of 2024-25 and first since Feb. 14.
Emma Woods recorded her first point of the series––an assist on Scamurra’s goal–– hitting the scoresheet for the first time since Feb. 14 against Boston, snapping a 14-game drought.
Kali Flanagan recorded her first point of the 2025 Playoffs and her second career playoff point, both assists.
Maggie Connors notched her first career playoff point, an assist, in her seventh postseason game. It also marked her first assist of the season, having recorded two goals in 30 regular-season games.
Maddie Rooney has now won four straight playoff games against Toronto dating back to last season and is 4-1 all-time in the postseason against the team. Her 27 saves tonight is her second highest total in 20 games all season.
Kristen Campbell allowed more than two goals against in a playoff game for the first time in her career (seven games).
Rylind MacKinnon made her playoff debut in the Sceptres lineup for the first time since Mar. 9 in place of Laura Kluge.
Brooke Bryant was added to the Frost lineup tonight in place of Britta Curl-Salemme who was serving her one-game suspension.
The Sceptres set a new PWHL playoff record for fastest two goals by a team, scoring twice in 27 seconds in the middle frame, breaking the previous mark of 57 seconds set by Minnesota in Game 5 of last year’s series against Toronto.
Toronto scored first for the fourth consecutive game, following the final two contests of their regular season (0-1-1-0) and Game 1 of this series.
Toronto erased a two-goal deficit for just the second time in team history. The first came on Feb. 11, 2025 when Minnesota led 2–0 before Toronto rallied to win 3–2 in overtime.
SCORESHEET RECAP
Minnesota 0 3 2 - 5
Toronto 1 2 0 - 3
1st Period-1, Toronto, Scamurra 1 (Woods), 7:11. Penalties-Carter Tor (tripping), 11:19.
2nd Period-2, Minnesota, Stecklein 1 (Pannek, Thompson), 4:41. 3, Minnesota, Cava 1 (Stecklein, Heise), 10:57. 4, Minnesota, Stecklein 2 (Petrie), 12:59 (PP). 5, Toronto, Harmon 1 (Maltais, Flanagan), 16:56 (PP). 6, Toronto, Munroe 1 (Connors, Maltais), 17:23. Penalties-MacKinnon Tor (illegal body checking), 11:59; Heise Min (elbowing), 15:10.
3rd Period-7, Minnesota, Jaques 1 (Heise), 13:47. 8, Minnesota, Channell-Watkins 1 (Jaques, Pannek), 18:49 (PP). Penalties-Spooner Tor (too many players), 17:16.
Shots on Goal-Minnesota 8-13-4-25. Toronto 10-7-13-30.
Power Play Opportunities-Minnesota 2 / 3; Toronto 1 / 1.
Goalies-Minnesota, Rooney (30 shots-27 saves). Toronto, Campbell (25 shots-20 saves).
A-7,659
THREE STARS
1. Lee Stecklein (MIN) 2G, 1A
2. Sophie Jaques (MIN) 1G, 1A
3. Emma Maltais (TOR) 2A
SERIES
Series tied 1-1
UPCOMING GAME
Game 3: Sunday, May 11 at 6 p.m. ET (Xcel Energy Center)