Stalwart Frost defender Lee Stecklein suddenly turns into goal-scoring machine

During a career in which she has won championships from high school to the Olympics, Frost veteran defender Lee Stecklein can’t remember a scoring stretch like this one here late in her second PWHL season.

She didn’t score in the first 28 regular-season games, but now has six goals in the last five games. Included were three goals in the first three games of a first-round playoff series against Toronto.

“Oh, I don’t think it exists,” Stecklein said of another such streak.

The Frost can advance to the Walter Cup finals without needing to beat Toronto in a fifth and final first-round game, as they did last year in a comeback from a 2-0 series deficit. Minnesota leads this best-of-five series 2-1 after losing the opener in Toronto.

At age 31, Stecklein has won the PWHL’s inaugural Walter Cup, Olympic gold, seven world championships, the PWHPA Secret Cup, an Isobel Cup, U-18 gold, three NCAA titles with the Gophers and a state championship when she was a sophomore at Roseville Area High School.

Is there anything left for her to win?

“I’m sure there is,” Stecklein said. “I have been pretty lucky to play on quite a few championship teams. It’s always fun to win that last game of the season.”

She won another IIHF World Championship last month in Czechia, scoring a goal in a 2-1 pool-play victory over rival Canada and assisting on a goal in a 4-3 overtime win over Canada in the final.

Back to finish the PHWL season, the Frost needed to win their last two games in regulation, on the road, to reach the playoffs. Stecklein scored twice in a 3-0 win at Ottawa, breaking her season goal-scoring drought, and once at Boston. Both were won in regulation.

In the playoffs, she became the first player in PWHL history to record three points — two goals and an assist — in a single period, doing so in a 5-3 Game 2 victory at Toronto. Stecklein used her 6-foot height, long reach and even longer stick to crash the net and redirect Kelly Pannek’s pass. Then Stecklein scored with a one-time blast drifting from the point out near the blue line.

“I don’t think anything in particular has changed,” she said. “They’re going in and that’s great. Our team is playing really well, and that has opened up stuff for me and I’ve been lucky to take advantage.”

Stecklein scored again in Sunday’s record-setting 7-5 home win in Game 3. She joined the play to score, cruising on a shot from low the slot.

“She was outstanding,” Frost coach Ken Klee said about Sunday’s game. “She’s known as a world-class defensive defender. She was feeling it. You know, it’s the playoffs. We have to find different ways to score goals and different people have to contribute. She knows she exemplifies that, and that’s why she’s one of our leaders and one of our best players. She was awesome.”

Only captain Kendall Coyne Schofield and Michela Cava are older than Stecklein, who turned 31 last month, just three days after the world championships’ gold-medal game.

Taylor Heise, the PWHL’s first draft pick, was a teammate on both teams, last year’s Walter Cup winners and last month’s world champions. Stecklein is seven years older.

“She has done it all, and I look up to her for that,” Heise said. “She has been doing this for a while, but she continues to break barriers. She has been on championship-winning teams, which I can’t say I have. The Olympics, I have not done that. She has done so many things that have added up and her career has been so successful. I’m super proud of her.

“I know she would never say how successful she has been, but the statistics prove it, and so do the championships. She’s got them all.”

Now the question is — with the Frost one win away from reaching the finals with the chance to play the Montreal-Ottawa winner for the Walter Cup — how many more championship does Stecklein have in her?

“We’ll have to see,” she said.

6 p.m. Wednesday at Xcel Energy Center

TV: Fan Duel Sports Network North. Streamed: PWHL YouTube channel.

Frost coach Ken Klee said after Tuesday’s practice he’d decide on a starting goalie that afternoon. Nicole Hensley started a Game 1 loss 3-2 while Maddie Rooney started wins in Games 2 and 3, including a wild 7-5 win on Sunday. “We have two good goalies,” Klee said. “We’ll make sure they know they’re ready to go. Our team is covered with both, so it’s a nice luxury for us.” … Game 5, if needed, will be at 6 p.m. (Central) Saturday in Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto.