Minnesota Frost begin defense of their PWHL championship with playoff loss at Toronto Sceptres

The Toronto Sceptres opened a three-goal lead and then held on to defeat the Minnesota Frost 3-2 in the first game of their PWHL playoff series Wednesday in Toronto.

Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Friday in Toronto. Game 3 will be played in St. Paul on Sunday.

“It’s a long series, that’s what we take from it,” Frost coach Ken Klee said. “We know it’s going to be a hard-fought series. Obviously, you have to get three wins. We didn’t get one tonight. Kudos to them, they played hard, and we’re looking forward to Friday.”

The Sceptres, who led 1-0 after the first period, got two goals from Julia Gosling in a two-minute span in the second period to extend their lead to 3-0.

The Frost got within 3-1 on a power-play goal by Britta Curl-Salemme with 6 minutes, 4 seconds remaining in the second. Katy Knoll scored with 17:27 remaining in the third period to pull the Frost within 3-2.

The Frost pulled goalie Nicole Hensley with 95 seconds remaining but couldn’t get the equalizer.

Blayre Turnbull scored with 8:01 remaining in the first period to open the scoring.

Gosling scored with 12:13 remaining in the second period to make it 2-0 before she scored on the power play with 10:18 remaining to make it 3-0.

Toronto outshot the Frost 27-17 in the first two periods. For the game, Toronto outshot the Frost 37-26.

During the regular season, the Frost won four of six meetings with the Sceptres, most recently 5-2 at Xcel Energy Center on March 30.

The series is a rematch of last year’s first-round playoff series. Minnesota lost the first two games in Toronto, 4-0 and 2-0, but won the next three games to win the best-of-five series and advance to the PWHL finals.