Neal: For the Minnesota Frost, the process of becoming a dynasty begins

At 5:07 p.m. Sunday, the banner touting PWHL Minnesota’s championship in the PWHL’s inaugural season was raised to nearly the top of the south end of Xcel Energy Center. The first championship banner in the 24-year life of the arena. Ahem, Wild.

At 5:16, the puck was dropped on the second season in league history. And Minnesota, now officially nicknamed the Frost, began its title defense.

Before the clock hit 5:17, Grace Zumwinkle scored the fastest goal in league history, lasering Kelly Pannek’s pass from the slot just 21 seconds after faceoff against New York. And the Frost took their first steps toward becoming the first back-to-back champs in Professional Women’s Hockey League history.

Frost players who moved on following last season were brought back for the ceremony, to watch highlights and to check out the Walter Cup one more time.

“Just a reflection of so many people who made that possible,” team captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said of her thoughts as the banner was raised. “That will always be … up in the rafters forever.”

Fans attending Sunday’s game, an announced crowd of 8,022, were given the now-standard towel to wave. They also received wrist bands that synched with the arena’s sound system to flash and change colors during the game. It added a little sizzle to the opening night atmosphere.

Frost fans also received an early 2-0 lead from their team while they figured out the best way to cheer.

Since the league had no nicknames a year ago, fans chanted, “Minn-e-so-ta!” for three periods. Now the team is the Frost, but fans spent a chunk of Sunday’s game getting the “Minn-e-so-ta” out of their system. There were a couple of “Go, Frost, Go” and “Let’s Go, Frost” chants as the game progressed.

It’s a process. Old habits are hard to change.

On the ice, the process starts all over. The Frost last season had strong goaltending and defense, a productive top line and the league’s Rookie of the Year in Zumwinkle. They also lost their final five games of the regular season and trailed Toronto 2-0 in the first playoff series before getting their act together to win the Walter Cup.

This season, their top six forwards are impressive. They also added defender Claire Thompson, whom coach Ken Klee called one of the top five in the world at her position.

Will they be successful doing the same things?

“I think that’s actually the hardest part, right?” Coyne Schofield said. “It’s having success and‚ to your point, is sustaining it. It is challenging. And I think it’s about embracing the highs and the lows. This season is not going to be perfect. There’s going to be highs, there’s going to be lows. And it’s, it’s learning from them. It’s coming together through them and coming out on the other side of whatever, whatever it may be.”

She said that before the Frost played a game that was a 60-minute flashback to last season’s highs and lows. They got off to a fast start, energized by a 15-3 edge in first-period shots. Then they gave up three unanswered goals and trailed in the third period.

Dominique Petrie scored her first career goal with just over four minutes remaining to force overtime. New York rookie Sarah Fillier, already a star for the Canadian national team, fed Alex Carpenter for the winner just 19 seconds into overtime, the Frost falling 4-3.

New York won just nine of 24 games last season and finished last in the PWHL. The Sirens represented the kind of team that Klee worries about, one looking to prove itself against the defending champions.

“Part of being a pro hockey player is you have to have the mentality that someone is always chasing you,” Klee said. “Someone’s always looking to take your job. You have to get better.”

That’s the challenge presented to the Frost, as the league’s first champion has a chance to become the league’s first dynasty. It’s a process. On the ice and in the cheering section.