On Monday, the Professional Women’s Hockey League announced that Britta Curl-Salemme has been suspended for one game and fined $250 for her hit on Kaitlin Willoughby, as well as for “pulling Abby Roque’s facial protector, sending her to the ice with a degree of violence.”

The Minnesota Frost offered little reaction to the league’s decision.

“That's the decision made by the league. We're focussing on our game two tomorrow,” said Frost’s captain Kendall Coyne Schofield on the league’s decision, Monday afternoon after the team’s practice in Verdun. 

“It's a tremendous loss,” she added. “Obviously, she's been a huge part of this team. She’s a big part of this team. And it's a big hole we'll have to fill for game two.”

Not much was said either by Minnesota head coach Ken Klee, beyond noting he’s dealt with similar situations before, as this marks Britta Curl-Salemme’s fourth one-game suspension since last season, and sixth instance of supplemental discipline.

“The league made the call and we're just moving on,” Klee said. “We’ll be excited to get her back for game three.”

“She’s one of the better players in the league, one of the better players on our team,” he added. “It's a loss, but, you know, we've dealt with it before. Good thing we have a lot of good players and it gives other players some opportunity.”

Members of the media were waiting to speak with players from the Montreal Victoire when news of the suspension broke during their practice Monday.

“I had no idea,” admitted Montreal forward Laura Stacey, when asked about it a few minutes after getting off the ice. “But obviously that's the league's decision and obviously we weren't necessarily happy with the hit on Willow (Kaitlin Willoughby) and I think you could see that from the reaction of all the players on the ice and on the bench. At the end of the day, I'm glad the league made a decision but again, we're excited that Willow's okay, that she's out here today. Our group's in great shape and we're excited about tomorrow.”

Kori Cheverie didn’t go into much detail, but the Montreal head coach appeared comfortable with the league’s decision.

“I mean, the league does what they need to do in every instance and you know, they saw what the punishment should be and we just play with whoever's on the other side or against whoever's on the other side,” explained Cheverie, adding that she didn’t want to comment further on the punishment since she’s not part of the league’s player safety committee.

Montreal’s Maggie Flaherty has been in high demand with the media given her two seasons with the Minnesota Frost, so it was only natural that she was asked for her take on her former teammate’s suspension.

“Britta's a competitive player,” Flaherty said. “I mean, she likes to play physical. And, yeah, she just caught one of our players in the head, so, if you want to keep players safe, you gotta start dishing those out.” 

Curl-Salemme was not made available by the team, with the organization saying in an email that it is “working towards making Britta available in the next few days of the series.”

Game two will be held at Place Bell on Tuesday night, while game three of the Walter Cup semifinals will be in Minnesota on Thursday.