With Olympics rosters now public for all PWHL players, the stress of knowing is over, and now it's the stress of living up to expectations that remains. For many members of the Minnesota Frost, they're already proving their Olympic status at the pro level.
After five games on the road, the Minnesota Frost were back at home in front of 9,787 fans, hosting the Seattle Torrent for the first time in St. Paul.
Being on the road, especially for five games can create a lot of stress, but for many Frost players, there was an additional layer of stress due to the excitement around the upcoming Olympics.
Many didn’t know if they’d get the call to represent their country in February at Milan.
“Being at home, I feel good, but the way the way you guys did it today, I feel good too. Yeah, absolutely. We make no secret that, you know, when you're part of the frost, we expect a lot from you, and we need you to contribute,” said head coach Ken Klee
But Sundays game marked the first game back at home for the Frost since the unveiling of many Olympic rosters.
Minnesota has eight players headed to the Olympics. Six were named to Team USA, the other two named to Team Czechia Those players include Taylor Heise, Lee Stecklein, Britta Curl-Salemme, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Kelly Pannek, and Grace Zumwinkle for the United States, and Klara Hymlarova and Denisa Krizova for Czechia.
While on the other side, Seattle has had six players named to three different Olympic teams, totalling 14 soon-to-be 2026 Olympians playing in the matchup.
These players showed off and proved they deserved that roster spot, especially for the Minnesota Frost.
Most notably Grace Zumwinkle scored two goals, while Taylor Heise scored her second goal of the season as well as tallied two assists.
Others included Klara Hymlarova’s first assist this season after being named to Team Czechia, as well as Kelly Pannek and Kendall Coyne Schofield both recording assists.
Taylor Heise and Britta Curl-Salemme showed through this game the skill they have, engaging excitement in their game as they head into their first Olympic Games.
Out of their six goals the Frost had points coming from six of their eight named Olympians, while Seattle only had one.
The bounce back performance from the team as a whole boosted team moral after two consecutive losses on the road.
Coach Ken Klee felt the stress of olympic roster announcements being lifted from players helped bring back the Frost’s energy for the victory
“For one thing, it's just kind of letting off that uncertainty, I think, a lot of our players had a good feeling, and felt like they had earned it, and I'm just really glad they did, because I tell you, [when you] hear your name called, theres still stress," said Klee. "So I think now they can kind of just play hockey hard here for the next couple weeks and then obviously the Olympic Games will be something special and that'll be a different experience for them, but I'm really excited for all."
In other notes from the game, both Kendall Cooper and Mae Batherson's league high point streaks came to end after six games, while other non-Olympic Frost players had great games including a two goal performance from Katy Knoll.