Roese scores in OT to offset hat trick by Stacey and Frost beat Victoire 5-4 in semifinal opener
LAVAL, Quebec (AP) — Montreal's Laura Stacey had the first hat trick in PWHL postseason history on Saturday, but Jincy Roese scored 4:30 into overtime and the Minnesota Frost beat the Victoire 5-4 in the opener of the best-of-five semifinal. The two-time defending champion Frost scored five times against Ann-Renée Desbiens the league's stingiest goaltender, who led with a 1. 11 goals-against average and a .
955 save percentage. Minnesota's Britta Curl-Salemme was hit with a 5-minute major penalty and ejected for misconduct with 47 seconds left in the second period. The 26-year-old forward had 29 points during the regular season — third most in the league — and could be suspended for Game 2 for the ejection.
The Victoire's Catherine Dubois received 2 minutes for roughing as tempers flared. Roese played just six matches for Minnesota after coming over from the New York Sirens where she totaled six assists in 22 outings. Kelly Pannek notched her second assist and Grace Zumwinkle her first on the winner.
Katy Knoll scored 8:35 into the first period to give Minnesota the lead. It was the third career postseason goal for the second-year forward after scoring a career-high seven times during the regular season. Kendall Coyne Schofield snuck a point-blank shot past Desbiens on a power play with 3:44 remaining and the Frost took a 2-0 lead into the second period.
It was Coyne Schofield's fourth postseason goal. Montreal had previously killed 34 of 35 power plays at home this season. Montreal cut it to 2-1 just 2:46 into the second on a goal by Shiann Darkangelo .