ST.PAUL-- The Minnesota Frost win their third straight game by defeating the Ottawa Charge 5-2 on Thursday evening. The Charge have now dropped four of their last five contest. Head coach for the Charge Carla MacLeod visibly frustrated in loss.
"We just didn't have the pushback that we needed," MacLeod said. "We just didn't have our game. It's a problem and we gotta figure it out."
When asked by a reporter about how to figure it out, MacLeod responded
"Our best players have to play like our best players."
The Ottawa Charge jumped out the to an early lead with a goal from Anna Meixnee assisted by Jincy Roese with just over 12 minutes left in the first period. It was Meixnee first of the season. The Minnesota Frost evened up the game with Kelley Pannek scoring a breakaway goal with just under eight minutes to play. It was Pannek first goal of the season.
Despite the Frost advantage for shots on goal being 11-5, the game is tied heading into the second period. Minnesota did score a second goal but after further review by the refs, it was called a no goal.
The second period started off with the Charge getting a cross checking penalty putting the Frost in the Power Play.
Minnesota quickly took advantage.
After a turnover by Ottawa, the Frost regained the puck and displayed beautiful passing setting up Pannek for her second goal of evening and giving the Frost a 2-1 lead. Pannek was assisted by Kendall Coyne Schofield. Minnesota would be accessed a penalty for too many players on the ice, giving Ottawa their first Power Play of the night. Despite being a man up, the Charge couldn't take advantage and squandered an opportunity to tie the game.
Immediately following the Frost being full strength, the Charge were penalized again, and down one teammate.
Seconds later, Grace Zumwinkle scored an insurance goal and gave Minnesota a 3-1 lead late in the second period. It was Zumwinkle third of the season and was the second Power Play goal of the night.
The defense of Minnesota tightened up as they only allowed Ottawa seven shots on goal and consistently put pressure on their defense by more than tripling the output of the Charge with an 28-11 advantage by the end of second period.
However, Ottawa wasn't done.
The Charge cut the deficit to one with an early goal by Tereza Vanisova. It was Vanisova's fourth goal of the season. Minnesota still held a slim lead 3-2 with lots of time remaining in the third period.
The physicality increased heavily in the third by the Charge and opportunity came to tie up the game when the Frost was accessed a minor penalty, leaving them down a player on the ice. Moments later Sophie Jaques of the Minnesota Frost took a hard fall on the ice after being hit by Ottawa Charge's Mannon McMahon, who is a native of Maple Grove, Minnesota. Jaques was helped off the ice and play resumed.
Later would learn Jaques was driven to the hospital with no further update provided per coach Ken Klee.
Ottawa was accessed with a penalty and now both teams had four players each on the ice. Neither team would score on the Power Play, resulting in both teams being full strength again.The Frost's # Claire Thompson, who also earned four points in the contest, scored a pivotal goal late in the period and gave Minnesota a two goal lead over Ottawa with just a little over four minutes left in the match.
With urgency and time running short, the Charge decided to go with a empty net with three and a half minutes remaining in the match. Giving them the man advantage.
To no avail though, because the defense of the Frost stood firm and added another goal by Zumwinkle, her second goal of the evening, giving them a 5-2 lead and assuring the victory for Minnesota.
Pannek talked about the emphasis on her scoring more this year than last year.
"I personally am trying to put myself in positions to put the puck on net. It is something I'm trying to be personally better at because I tend to look for a pass first. I'm continuing to work on being a threat at the net whoever I'm playing with."
Coach Klee commended his team efforts in the Power Play plus talked about the long layoff (11 days) before tonight's game and how beneficial it was.
"Anytime that you could have multiple practices in a row, we have a lot of things you can work on," Klee said. "Whenever we do have those breaks, which aren't very often, these guys usually are gone for the international breaks. This time we didn't have that, so we had full practices with everyone here and I thought it was a productive week."
The Minnesota Frost (3-1) now will head to New York to try to push their win streak to four and also avenged their only loss of the season, while the Ottawa Charge (1-4) will have another 10 day stretch off before competing on the 29th of December against the Sirens as well.
Photo by Minnesota Frost Communications Department
Not by Chris Drummond
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