Minnesota Frost fire up over the chance to finish off Ottawa and celebrate PWHL title at home this time

This time last year, the team that would be named the Minnesota Frost lifted the PWHL’s inaugural trophy in a rapidly emptying arena outside Boston.

On Monday, the Frost can win a second consecutive Walter Cup, this time at home in St. Paul at Xcel Energy Center.

They lead the best-of-five league PWHL Finals against Ottawa 2-1 after Saturday’s Game 3 triple-overtime victory and can avoid a fifth and final game at Ottawa on Wednesday if they win Monday in Minnesota.

“We’ve never done it before, so I honestly don’t know,” Frost star forward Taylor Heise said Sunday afternoon about perhaps clinching the championship at home. “I don’t want to jinx it in any sense, but it would be awesome.

“Doing this at home would be life-altering. Even those not from Minnesota would know how important that would be. So, I think anyone and everyone is going to come out tomorrow — including Ottawa, doing everything they can — and we’re going to try to match that and be better.”

All three finals games have ended with a score of 2-1, and all three have gone to overtime. Fourth-line rookie Katy Knoll won Saturday’s game midway through the third overtime with a falling swipe from short range that found the net.

Add the Frost’s series-clinching Game 4 in a first-round series against Toronto and their past four games have all gone to OT.

Coach Ken Klee’s son David just played three overtime games, including a deciding Game 5, in winning the junior hockey USHL’s Clark Cup. Now his father’s team is going to overtime every night as well.

“It’s definitely nerve-racking. It’s definitely hard on my wife,” Klee said. “My son went three-OT for the title, and now we’re going three-OT games in the finals. But it’s fun. It’s fun hockey. It’s exciting. It keeps everybody on the edge of their chairs.”

Few Frost players opted in for a very optional skate Sunday after they played nearly five hours and almost two full games on a Saturday afternoon that turned into a Saturday night. Everybody studied film. Some received treatment and massages and took care of Game 4 ticket requests for family and friends.

The Frost will play Monday in front of a crowd probably bigger than the 8,098 fans who attended Saturday’s game on a Memorial Day weekend.

“It was a huge crowd. We’re so grateful,” Knoll said. “It was on a [holiday] weekend, [and] the Timberwolves were playing as well. To see the lower bowl almost completely full, we feed off that momentum.”

Women’s sporting legend and PWHL advisory board member Billie Jean King is likely to attend, too, in case the Walter Cup is awarded for the second time, to the same team.

“Our game prep is the same,” Klee said. “We talked a little more about obviously they know it’s a big game for us, but let’s try to handle most of the exterior stuff today and tomorrow we’ll dial it in on our game.”

Frost players started to celebrate the title last year in a double-overtime PWHL Finals Game 4 at the X — until a review for goalie interference overturned the winning goal before 13,000-plus booing fans. The series went to a Game 5 in Boston, where the Frost won 3-0.

“It’s so important we could win in front of our home fans and our family and friends,” said Heise, who has one goal and six assists in seven playoff games this season. “To be able to do it and not get on a plane and fly home like we did last year, as special as it was. That created a lot of good memories.”

Memories created with a victory Monday might mean as much as that first championship celebration. New expansion teams awarded to Seattle and Vancouver could strip the Frost of three or four players in the upcoming expansion draft.

“No team is going to be the same next year,” Heise said. “This year is super important when you have this team together. Last year wasn’t a fluke if you do it again this year. Last year, we weren’t the favorite, and not a lot of people wanted us to win. Take it one step at a time. Two times is not a fluke. If we were to do it again and win it at home, a lot of people will start believing in us finally.”