For the second consecutive year, he was the captain of Minnesota Frost, Kendall Ceyne Schofield, who went to the Walter Cup after his team won the championship.
It was the player who played a key role in the creation of the Professional Women’s Hockey League that again led his team to the top of the mountain, through potholes and bruises and extra hours in abundance.
Like last year, the team that faced the playoffs when the final seed at the end of the season ended at the top.
“It’s hard to win consecutive,” said Coyne Schofield to journalists on Monday after the victory of his team. “I am very proud of this group. When you look at the way we win, everyone is needed.”
Some things were different this year.
On the one hand, Frost won this championship in front of a local crowd. More than 11,000 fans appeared at the Xcel Energy Center to see the Frost defeat the Ottawa Charge 2-1 in extra time of game 4.
But the biggest distinction is that this was felt as the last dance for a deep team of Minnesota.
Look | Frost’s captain, Ceyne Schofield, lifts the Walter Cup:
For the second time in the history of the franchise, Minnesota Frost went to the Walter Cup when they defeated Ottawa Charge 2-1 in extra time on Monday night in game four.
The second part is a reality that each team faces throughout the league: change is approaching.
As the celebrations continue in Minnesota, the general manager of Frost, Melissa Caruso, and their staff must begin to decide who to protect in the next expansion draft, which will help build new teams debuting in Seattle and Vancouver next season.
The teams can only protect three players to start, and those protection lists must be presented next Tuesday at 12 pm et. Once a team loses two players to expansion, a fourth player can protect themselves.
It is a reality that was not lost in Frost players on Monday night.
“This group is so special and it is sad to think that we will never play together again,” goalkeeper Maddie Rooney, who is a free agent after this season.
How the frost won
Like any other game of the Minnesota-Oltawa series, game 4 required extra time.
After the Minnesota striker, Kelly Pannek, opened the scoring, Tereza Vanišová of the load scored his first playoff goal in the third period to tie the game.
His line with the rookies Katy Knoll and Klára Hymlárová was persistent throughout the series, and also won the winner of the game in game 3.
Coyne Schofield described that line as the best of Minnesota in the series “by far”.
“He simply talks about that there was no role that was too big or too small, “he said.
It was the depth of Minnesota, from the fourth line to the defenders, which finally helped them expel Ottawa.
But it was also the belief in the room, the type of confidence that has come to have done this before, and have played and go out of great games. Even when it seemed that the frost could miss the playoffs or when the team dropped the first game of the final series to Ottawa, Panic never settled.
“The belief in ourselves and among us around the locker room was there the whole season despite some potholes along the way,” said Rooney, who won the five games that began in the Playoffs of 2025. “We never had doubts.”
‘Unreal’ goal performance
Like Minnesota, Ottawa entered the regular season stretch in a fight to reach the playoffs. Things seemed gloomy in March when the initial goalkeeper Emerance Maschmeyer was placed in a long -term injured reserve.
Enter Gwyneth Philips, the rookie goalkeeper who entered the initial role easily.
“She was unreal,” said Minnesota chief coach Ken Klee. “I thought about three of the four games, if she doesn’t play the way she played, then I don’t think we go on extra time in any of them, to be honest with you.”
Philips finished his first race in the playoffs with 1.23 goals against the average in more than 635 minutes of play.
The performance earned him the MVP Award of Playoff Ilana Kloss, although his team did not win the championship. The crowd in Minnesota sang and cheered Philips while skating to receive the prize.
Look | Philips position goalkeeper affirms the MVP prize of the playoffs of Ilana Kloss:
Gwyneth Philips, from the position of Ottawa, received the MVP prize of Playoff Ilana Kloss on Monday despite a 2-1 defeat in game four in extra time against Minnesota Frost in the PWHL finals.
Philips told journalists after the game that he didn’t hear the songs. The trophy that really wanted was the Walter Cup.
“At this time, the individual award is replaced by the loss of the team,” said the goalkeeper. “We were so close and we really wanted that. My achievements are attributed to the players in front of me. Maybe tomorrow will be friendlier. But I really wanted that victory.”
Ultimately, the team could not score more than Minnesota, falling a goal in three games in a row. If there is an area of lost opportunity, it is likely to be in the power game. Ottawa scored only once in 19 advantages during the postseason.
Sitting between two players devastated after the game, Ottawa chief coach, Carla Macleod, said she was proud of her players for giving it everything they had.
“The space was so limited in this series for both teams that everyone was doing the most cursed to try to score a goal and deny a goal,” he said. “This is not on the shoulders of a player or the shoulders of a moment. Actually, this was just the reflection of two great teams that play an incredibly good hockey.”
Look | How will the PWHL expansion draft work:
Karissa Donkin of CBC Sports crosses PWHL’s expansion draft rules, explaining how the new clubs in Seattle and Vancouver will fill their list.
Like Minnesota, difficult decisions arrive in Ottawa. It is unlikely that the team can protect Philips and Maschmeyer.
Protecting a goalkeeper also means that there are only two positions for people such as Captain Brianne Jenner, Clark, Larocque, Bell and the second selection last year, Danielle Serdachny.
The last minutes in the costumes with this team, knowing that they will not fill together again, it was the most difficult part, Jenner said.
“This was a special group. We passed by this season. It showed a lot of resistance.”
Change on the horizon
While each team has difficult decisions to make, some of the most difficult could come in Minnesota.
Protecting star striker Taylor Heise, who was the Playoffs MVP last year, would mean exposing one of the three fundamental signings of the team: Coyne Schofield, Pannek or Lee Stecklein.
On the blue line, probably only one of Stecklein, Sophie Jaques Claire Thompson can make the initial protection list. Stecklein is a large part of the identity and leadership of the team, and is one of the best defensive defenders in the world. Jaques and Thompson, meanwhile, have offensive ability and hockey IQ, and both obtained nominations for the defender of the year.
Klee has been able to ride between Rooney and Nicole Hensley during the last two seasons, choosing to go with who has a hot hand. That can be a thing of the past. Rooney is a free agent, while Hensley could be an objective for an expansion team, if not protected.
With a restoration of the list on the road, and the league grows to eight teams from six, winning the Walter Cup will only become more difficult to do.
Minnesota is the only team that can properly celebrate the end of the original era of six, with a last championship together.
“This is the highest note we could have come out,” Rooney said. “To share this memory all together, we will remember this for the rest of our lives.”
