Hensley stands tall as Frost dominate Sceptres to close out 2025

Nicole Hensley made 31 saves in her fourth win of the season as the Minnesota Frost took down the Toronto Sceptres 5-1 at Coca-Cola Coliseum on Tuesday. (Photo Credit: PWHL)

By Eli Silverstone

The Toronto Sceptres lost 5-1 to the Minnesota Fleet Tuesday night at Coca-Cola Coliseum, evening up their season series at 1-1. 

Minnesota now jumps the Sceptres for second place in the PWHL, as they continue to haunt Toronto. The Sceptres have blown series leads of 2-0 and 1-0 respectively in the last two  quarterfinals against the Frost and their last game of 2025 reflected a similar story. After Toronto went up 1-0 early, the Frost scored five unanswered goals en route to the victory. 

“We weren’t capitalizing on our chances. I think we played better than a 5-1 loss but you can’t give up three D-zone faceoff goals against,” said head coach Troy Ryan. 

Toronto struck five minutes in on a momentous goal. Renata Fast drove hard behind the net on her backhand before throwing the puck out in front for Daryl Watts to fire a shot past Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley. 

It was Watts’ 50th career PWHL point and her team-leading fifth goal and ninth point of the season. The 26-year-old is now second all-time in PWHL points behind only Marie-Philip Poulin. She’s seamlessly transitioned into the role of Toronto’s main source of offence so they don’t have to rely on 36-year-old Natalie Spooner to score every night. 

“[Poulin] is my idol ever since I was little, so it's pretty cool to be in a category with her. But, bittersweet to lose the game tonight like we did,” said Watts. 

With an early penalty kill and Watts’ finish, the Sceptres appeared on track to springboard to a big win. But it didn’t last long.

The experienced Fleet proved unphased by the deficit and bounced back less than two minutes later. Katy Knoll banged home a rebound to tie the game right up 1-1.

A few minutes later, the tide hit Toronto harder. After a tough icing call that Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull thought she beat out, a set play by the Frost put the puck on the stick of forward Britta Curl-Salemme. She added to her league-leading point total with a top shelf goal from an impossible angle, giving Minnesota a lead they’d never lose. 

The Sceptres pushed for the equalizer throughout the rest of the second period. Their power play created a lot of chances—which has been rare for a unit that was producing at a league worst rate of 9.5 per cent—but Hensley shut the door. 

“Second period, they took it to us a little bit. We had a lot of turnovers but we had Nicole. She was outstanding, she kept us in there and made huge saves at key times,” said Frost head coach Ken Klee.

As the Sceptres got more and more frustrated by Hensley’s wild saves and maybe some playoff memories, the game got chippy. The Sceptres started pressuring the puck carrier and laying a hit whenever possible but the Frost remained unbothered—at the end of the day, the Sceptres were creating chances and out-shooting them, but couldn’t beat Hensley.

“We need to finish, because getting grade-A chances doesn't mean anything on the scoreboard,” said Watts. 

The Frost continued to calmly hold off Toronto, then made their mark on the power play. They meticulously worked the puck around the dots before Grace Zumwinkle slammed home a one timer for the 3-1 lead. Then, with seconds to play in the second period, Minnesota piled on with a fourth goal by Kendall Coyne-Schofield. 

Taylor Heise had assists on three of the four goals, moving her into a tie for second all-time in PWHL assists with Fast, behind only Montreal Victoire defender Erin Ambrose.

Ryan made a swap in goal for the third period, pulling Elaine Chuli for backup Raygan Kirk in an effort to get his team going and keep the game as close as possible.

“I think there’s two goals that [Chuli]’d like to have back, and we need to have our goalie make those saves when we’re not putting the puck in the net,” he said. “Doesn’t mean she’s a bad goaltender—she’s a great goaltender—we’d just like to have a couple of those back.”

Toronto pushed in the closing frame, outshooting Minnesota 14-8, but could not break through.

Coyne-Schofield added her second goal and third point of the night on an early empty net for the Sceptres, icing the game at 5-1. She now has 49 career points.

Despite Toronto outshooting their opponent 32-26, goaltending and timely goals by Minnesota’s stars continued to show the Frost’s championship pedigree while the Sceptres struggled for answers. Despite strong outputs, they now have more losses than wins, holding a 4-0-2-3 record.

NEXT: The Sceptres head to Hamilton for the Takeover Tour as they take on the Seattle Torrent for the first time ever at TD Coliseum on Saturday, Jan. 3. Puck drop is set for 2 p.m.