Minnesota Frost fall in a record-breaking way to Ottawa, the PWHL’s last-place team

The Frost had been snagging points in their games lately, win or lose.

They’ll get no points for Thursday’s result, an 8-3 loss to the Charge in Ottawa that produced the highest scoring in PWHL history.

That’s the last-place Charge (6-0-2-8). The Frost (5-4-3-5) is second in the six-team league.

“They seemed to capitalize on every shot they had, and we didn’t defend very well,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “It was just one of those nights where everything they were putting towards the net seemed to go in for them.”

The Frost had added standings points in each of the past three games, even in a 3-2 overtime loss in Toronto on Tuesday.

Ottawa moved into a three-way tie for fourth place, which means all six of the league’s teams are currently in playoff position.

The 11 combined goals broke the PWHL single-game record of nine, done twice, when the Frost beat Toronto 6-3 on Dec. 7 this season and last season when Montreal beat Ottawa 6-3 on Feb. 24, 2024.

The Charge tied the PWHL record for most goals in a period with four in the second period. Ottawa was one of three teams to achieve that last season and is the second team to do so this season (New York, Dec. 18).

Five goals matches the largest margin of victory in a PWHL game. The Frost lost 5-0 to New York on Jan. 4, 2024.

Ottawa’s Tereza Vanisova put together a hat trick Thursday. The Frost’s goals came from Britta Curl-Salemme, Michela Cava and Sophie Jaques.

Each of the Frost’s goaltenders gave up four goals. Nicole Hensley started, Maddie Rooney replaced her, and each faced 13 shots.

“Once they got it going, they just kept on us,” Klee said.

Emerance Maschmeyer stopped 23 shots for Ottawa.

The Charge improved to 2-1 against the Frost this season, having split two games in St. Paul.

Gabbie Hughes, who played for Centennial in high school, scored her first two goals of the season and added an assist for the Charge, who scored as many goals Thursday night as they had scored in their past seven games combined.

Brianne Jenner, Mannon McMahon and Victoria Bach also scored for the Charge. Shiann Darkangelo had three assists and Rebecca Leslie two.

“You have to move on,” the Frost’s Lee Stecklein said. “You are always playing another game, and the next game is the biggest one so we have to figure out what went wrong, fix that and control what we can. But I don’t think there’s panic or reason for concern right now.”