TORONTO — Toronto Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan did not blame his team for blowing a lead in a second straight game.
“I would say there’s some other circumstances that impacted us playing with the lead tonight,” Ryan said after a 3-2 overtime loss to the Minnesota Frost.
“I was quite comfortable with how we were playing with the lead tonight. And we ended up losing the lead.”
The Sceptres had a 2-1 advantage in the third period on Sunday but Minnesota tied it on a power-play goal by PWHL points leader Taylor Heise, who found teammate Kelly Pannek for the OT winner with a slap pass from the top of the faceoff circle.
Toronto had the first scoring chance of overtime when a rebound settled in the crease near defender Renata Fast. However, a play by a Minnesota defender snapped Fast’s stick in half, preventing her from poking at the rubber.
Not long after, Fast was called for slashing Frost forward Britta Curl-Salemme in the neutral zone. The Sceptres defender took exception to Curl-Salemme with some post-whistle shoves after the American fell to the ice on the play.
Pannek’s winner followed 17 seconds later.
“I didn’t like the non-call,” Ryan said. “I probably can live with the call in the neutral zone, although I thought it probably could have been both gone.”
However, it wasn’t the OT plays that had Ryan most irritated. He pointed to the Frost’s tying goal in the third period while centre Clara Van Wieren was in the box for boarding.
“There was a missed icing, so we would have had an offensive zone faceoff, and then there was a scrum (where) we pulled the puck out and cleared it when the whistle was blown,” Ryan said. “Instead of us clearing it with a line change, we had a defensive zone faceoff which they scored against. So, to me, that moment is bigger than the moment in overtime.”
Veteran forward Natalie Spooner called the potential inconsistency “part of the game.”
“I think there’s gong to be calls you get that you probably didn’t deserve and calls you don’t get that you probably deserved,” she said. “But I think we’ve just got to go with it and be able to be resilient in those situations and try to kill those when we do get those calls.”
It was the second straight loss for the Sceptres, who fell 4-3 in a shootout to the Montreal Victoire on Tuesday despite an early two-goal lead.
Toronto (6-1-5-8), however, is still carrying a four-game point streak out of the Olympic break as it looks to make a playoff push. Minnesota (7-3-3-4) picked up its first victory since returning to play.
Daryl Watts had one goal and one assist for the Sceptres, while Emma Woods picked up her first goal of the season.
“It’s a gorilla off the back,” Woods said. “Obviously nice to get the first one out of the way, especially (in the) 20th game of the season. It felt good. A win would have felt better.”
Heise also assisted on Denisa Krizova’s first of the season to open the scoring in the first period.
Fast, meanwhile, did not speak to reporters after the game.
“I’m sure there’s a little bit of frustration,” Ryan said. “She’s a competitive person, she’s fiery, I’m sure she’s not happy with the way it ended.”
The Sceptres return to action March 15 against the visiting Seattle Torrent.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 9, 2026.
Myles Dichter, The Canadian Press
