With PWHL expansion looming, the defending champion Frost go out on top
Minnesota celebrates a 2nd Walter Cup before change comes next week via expansion
For the second year in a row, it was Minnesota Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield hoisting the Walter Cup after her team won the championship.
It was the player who played such a key role in the creation of the Professional Women's Hockey League who again led her team to the top of the mountain, through bumps and bruises and overtime galore.
Just like last year, the team that squeaked into the playoffs as the final seed at the end of the season ended up on top.
"It's hard to win back to back," Coyne Schofield told reporters on Monday after her team's win. "I'm just so proud of this group. When you look at the way we won, it takes everybody."
A few things were different this year.
For one, the Frost won this championship in front of a home crowd. More than 11,000 fans showed up to the Xcel Energy Center to watch the Frost defeat the Ottawa Charge 2-1 in overtime of Game 4.
But the biggest distinction is that this felt like the last dance for a deep Minnesota team.
WATCH | Frost captain Coyne Schofield lifts the Walter Cup:
The second part is a reality every team across the league is facing: change is coming.
As the celebrations continue in Minnesota, Frost general manager Melissa Caruso and her staff will need to start to decide who to protect in the upcoming expansion draft, which will help build new teams debuting in Seattle and Vancouver next season. Each existing team will lose four players through expansion.
Existing teams can only protect three players to start, and those protection lists are due next Tuesday at 12 p.m. ET. Once a team loses two players to expansion, a fourth player can be protected.
It's a reality that wasn't lost on the Frost's players on Monday night.
"This group's so special and it's sad to think that we'll never play together again," said goaltender Maddie Rooney, who is a free agent after this season.
How the Frost won
Like every other game in the Minnesota-Ottawa series, Game 4 required overtime.
After Minnesota forward Kelly Pannek opened the scoring, the Charge's Tereza Vanišová scored her first playoff goal in the third period to tie the game.
Her line with rookies Katy Knoll and Klára Hymlárová was persistent throughout the series, and also earned the game winner in Game 3.
Coyne Schofield described that line as Minnesota's best in the series "by far."
"It just speaks to there was no role that was too big or too small," she said.
It was Minnesota's depth, from the fourth line to the defenders, that ultimately helped them edge out Ottawa.
But it was also the belief in the room, the kind of confidence that comes from having done this before, and having played and come out on top of big games. Even when it looked like the Frost might miss the playoffs or when the team dropped the first game of the final series to Ottawa, panic never set in.
"The belief in ourselves and each other around the locker room was there all season despite some bumps in the road," said Rooney, who won all five games she started in the 2025 playoffs. "We never had a doubt."
'Unreal' goaltending performance
Like Minnesota, Ottawa entered the stretch run of the regular season in a fight to make the playoffs. Things looked bleak in March when starting goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer was placed on long-term injured reserve.
Enter Gwyneth Philips, the rookie goaltender who stepped into the starting role with ease.
"She was unreal," Minnesota head coach Ken Klee said. "I thought in three out of the four games, if she doesn't play the way she played, then I don't think we go to overtime in any of them, to be honest with you."
Philips finished her first playoff run with a 1.23 goals against average over more than 635 minutes of play.
The performance earned her the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award, even though her team didn't win the championship. The crowd in Minnesota chanted and cheered for Philips as she skated over to receive the award.
WATCH | Charge goaltender Philips claims Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award:
Philips told reporters after the game that she didn't hear the chants. The trophy she really wanted was the Walter Cup.
"Right now, the individual award is superseded by the team loss," the goaltender said. "We were so close and we really wanted that. My accomplishments are attributed to the players in front of me. Maybe tomorrow it'll be nicer. But I really wanted that win."
Ultimately, the team couldn't score more than Minnesota, falling one goal short three games in a row. If there's one area of missed opportunity, it's likely on the power play. Ottawa scored just once on 19 advantages throughout the postseason.
Sitting between two devastated players after the game, Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod said she was proud of her players for giving it all they had.
"The space was so limited in this series for both teams that everybody was doing their darnedest to try to score a goal and negate a goal," she said. "This isn't on one player's shoulders or one moment's shoulders. This was actually just the reflection of two great teams playing incredibly good hockey."
WATCH | How the PWHL's expansion draft will work:
Like Minnesota, tough decisions are coming in Ottawa. It's unlikely the team will be able to protect both Philips and Maschmeyer.
Protecting one goaltender also means just two spots left for the likes of captain Brianne Jenner, Clark, Larocque, Bell and last year's second-overall pick, Danielle Serdachny.
The last few minutes in the dressing room with this team, knowing they won't be back in full together again, was the hardest part, Jenner said.
"This was a special group. We went through a lot this season. Showed a lot of resiliency."
Change on the horizon
While every team has tough decisions to make, some of the hardest ones might be coming in Minnesota.
Protecting star forward Taylor Heise, who was last year's playoff MVP, would mean exposing one of the team's three foundational signings: Coyne Schofield, Pannek or Lee Stecklein.
On the blue line, likely only one of Stecklein, Sophie Jaques or Claire Thompson can make the initial protection list. Stecklein is a big part of the team's identity and leadership, and is one of the best defensive defenders in the world. Jaques and Thompson, meanwhile, boast offensive ability and hockey IQ, and both earned nominations for defender of the year.
Klee has been able to cycle between Rooney and Nicole Hensley throughout the last two seasons, opting to go with whoever has the hot hand. That may be a thing of the past. Rooney is a free agent, while Hensley could be a target for an expansion team, should she not be protected.
With a roster reset on the way, and the league growing to eight teams from six, winning the Walter Cup is only going to become harder to do.
Minnesota is the only team that gets to properly celebrate the end of the original six era, with one last championship together.
"This is the highest note that we could have gone out on," Rooney said. "To share this memory all together, we'll remember this for the rest of our lives."
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