Frost earn second straight PWHL Walter Cup with 2-1 OT win over Charge

ST. PAUL, MINN. – The Minnesota Frost needed the last day of the regular season to punch their ticket to the PWHL Playoffs. Just over three weeks later, they earned their second straight Walter Cup.

With Liz Schepers scoring the championship-winning overtime goal for the second straight year, the Frost defeated the Ottawa Charge 2-1 in Game 4 of the PWHL Finals, sealing a 3-1 series win for Minnesota and cementing themselves as the best team in the league, again.

Schepers’ goal came after she buried her own rebound off a shot in front, firing it past Charge goaltender Gwyneth Philips for her second of the playoffs. The reported 11,024 fans in attendance immediately erupted, with gloves and sticks littering the ice and players celebrating

Schepers credited the coaching staff for having the confidence to put her line out in overtime.

“To play us in big moments in overtimes, it gives us a ton of confidence to go out there and make plays and to contribute to this team,” she told reporters after the game.

Frost Head Coach Ken Klee says his team was blessed to get the third win of the series.

“We know we need everyone,” Klee said. “We’re so banged up. We have separated shoulders, bad knees and bad hips and bad groins. We have fractures to hands. Our injury list is really long.”

Charge Head Coach Carla McLeod said her team will walk away from this incredibly proud.

“That will be the lasting feeling,” she said. “Where the sting is real, we know it, the undercurrent of what we’ve established this year and what we were able to accomplish together was truly special.”

Ottawa goalie Gwyneth Philips became the first player from a losing team to win the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP Award. She made 36 saves on 38 shots in Game 4, keeping the Charge in it and forcing the game to go to overtime. Through two playoff rounds, Philips posted a .952 save percentage (SV%) and 1.23 goals-against-average (GAA), allowing just 13 goals in eight games.

Last week, she was named a finalist for the PWHL Goaltender of the Year.

All four games in the PWHL Finals were 2-1 overtime games, with the Charge taking Game 1 and the Frost winning the next three games. The two teams played a total of 81:08 of overtime in this series.

Minnesota opened the scoring midway through the second period as their cycle game maintained possession in the Ottawa zone. After Grace Zumwinkle was hauled down by Jocelyne Larocque, Claire Thompson picked up the loose puck and found Kelly Pannek wide open at the side of the net, and she buried it past Philips to make it 1-0 Minnesota.

With less than 10 minutes left in the third period, Tereza Vanisova, who led the team in goals and points with 15 and 22, respectively, scored her second of the playoffs off a one-timer pass from 2024 No. 2 overall pick Danielle Serdachny to tie the game 1-1.

Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney made 33 saves Monday night, improving her save percentage to .932 and lowering her GAA to 1.75.

With the win, the Frost became the first team in women’s professional sports to win the league’s first two championships since the Houston Comets won the Women’s National Basketball Association’s (WNBA) first four titles.