Last season, before they were league champs, the team now known as the Minnesota Frost was backed into a corner.
On the final day of the regular season, the Frost were on a five-game slide, hoping for an Ottawa loss to help snag the fourth and final spot in the league’s inaugural playoffs.
A Walter Cup trophy dulls the sting of slipping into the postseason by the skin of your teeth. But the Frost know: Early-season points matter.
The defending PWHL champs have won four of their first five games (4-0-1) and are the only team remaining without a regulation loss, three points clear of New York atop the six-team PWHL standings.
The Frost host the Montreal Victoire (3-1) on Saturday. A victory means the Frost will best their four victories in six games to start last season and will have beaten every other team in the league only a half-dozen games into the season.
What’s at stake
It’s not yet the new year, but coach Ken Klee knows these points add up come spring. The PWHL takes three international breaks throughout the 30-game regular season, the longest stretching from April 3-25 for the IIHF Women’s World Championships.
After last year’s break, the Frost lost seven games in a row. They stopped the skid by reverse-sweeping Toronto in the first round of the playoffs.
“When you have a three- or four-week break, it’s tough to manage how many of our players are gone, how many are still here, trying to keep the same tempo in practice when you take eight players out of your lineup,” Klee said.