Minnesota Frost roar into the PWHL playoffs with blowout of Boston Fleet

Down but apparently never, ever out, the Frost reached the PWHL playoffs for a second consecutive season and will defend their inaugural Walter Cup title after Saturday’s resounding 8-1 victory at Boston.

The Frost headed east after last Sunday’s home loss to last-place New York needing regulation victories at Ottawa and Boston on their final regular-season road trip.

They beat Ottawa 3-0 on Wednesday ahead of Saturday’s dominating victory, which included two empty-netters, one with 12½ minutes remaining. Boston stopped Frost goaltender Nicole Hensley’s bid for consecutive shutouts with a goal with 4½ minutes left.

“It just shows how great our players are,” Frost coach Ken Klee said in Boston. “They know when the pressure is on and the game is on the line, they step up in big ways. We had it the other night against Ottawa, and we had it today against Boston. It’s easy to coach a room that wants that pressure and wants that moment and wants to take advantage of it.”

It was the largest margin of victory in PWHL history, and the Frost’s 11-1 differential is the largest in any two consecutive games in league history. The eight goals tied a PWHL single-game record.

“We knew we had to [win], we knew our season was on the line and we knew they’re a very good team,” Hensley said in a postgame television interview. “We knew we had to come out hard, and we’re just thankful we’re moving on.”

The Frost now will play a first-round playoff series against either top-seeded Montreal starting Thursday or most likely second-seeded Toronto on the road starting Wednesday.

“We’ve had a target on our back all year so for us it doesn’t matter,” Klee said. “We didn’t earn the right to choose so we know whoever they select we know we need to go in and make it a hard series.”

Hensley made 29 saves and Boston scored its only goal with 4:27 left, when the Fleet trailed 7-1.

The Frost started fast, scoring twice in the first three minutes and once more in the first period.

Before it was all over, Britta Curl-Salemme and former Fleet defender Sophie Jaques each had scored two goals. The Frost scored three power-play goals, one by Curl-Salemme, and Jaques had a late-game shorthanded goal.

Last season, the Frost lost their last five regular-season games and still backed into the playoffs before they won two playoff series, each in a fifth and deciding game, to win the PWHL championship.

First-place Toronto earned the right to pick its first-round opponent last season and did not choose wisely, selecting fourth-seeded Minnesota. Toronto won the first two games at home, then lost the next three in the best-of-five series.

This time, Montreal will get its pick of opponents, which will be announced Sunday.

Ottawa, Boston and the Frost finished tied for third place in the six-team league. Ottawa and the Frost advanced after Ottawa beat Montreal in overtime Saturday. Ottawa is seeded third, the Frost fourth; Boston stays home because of tiebreaker rules that start with number of regulation wins.

The Frost led 3-0 by late in the first period, the same score by which they defeated Boston in Game 5 of last season’s PWHL finals.

Curl-Salemme scored her eighth and ninth goals this season, the first Saturday coming with just 2:23 gone in the game. Veteran defender Lee Stecklein scored her third goal in the past two games just 45 seconds later, with 3:08 gone. Until she scored twice Wednesday, Stecklein hadn’t scored a goal all season.

“I have no idea,” Stecklein said in an intermission TV interview. “My teammates always have been supportive. We don’t care who scores. Somebody needs to. If it’s not me, it’s someone else.”

Veteran captain Kendall Coyne Schofield’s 12th goal this season made it 3-0 in a game that started with the Frost outshooting Boston 10-1.