Frost Will Rely On Depth, Offensive-Defenders In Quest For Back-To-Back Championships

This spring is starting to look a lot like the end of last season for Minnesota in the PWHL playoffs. A year ago, the team had a five-game skid to end the regular season, barely made the playoffs, and then won in a reverse-sweep against Toronto to reach the championship series on the way to the inaugural Walter Cup Championship.

“We really battled, and we showed that once we play our game, we’re a really hard team to beat,” said Minnesota defender Mellissa Channell-Watkins. “I think that’s where our focus is moving forward, just play our game, do your job, and we’ll be successful in the end.”

This season, the team now known as the Minnesota Frost was out of the playoff picture before a dominating pair of must-win games to end the regular season and again get the final and No. 4 slot in the playoffs. Again, Minnesota defeated the higher-seed Toronto Sceptres in three consecutive games to win the semifinals and earn a shot to defend its Walter Cup title.

The Frost open the PWHL Finals on the road against No. 3 Ottawa Charge on Tuesday night.

Minnesota has made it this far thanks to clutch goal-scoring performances from its forward lines, but the blue line has also driven winning. In the Frost’s 5-3 Game 2 win in Toronto, four of the team’s five tallies came from defenders, including two from red-hot Lee Stecklein (three goals, three assists in four playoff games) and a pair of third-period goals from the second defensive pair, Sophie Jaques and Channell-Watkins.

The pair started playing together at the end of last season and celebrated a championship together. Ken Klee tweaked the lines early this season, but they were reunited and have played together for a good chunk of the season.

Channell-Watkins said the pair finishes a shift, puts it behind them no matter what happens, and prepares for the next one. They don’t necessarily say a lot to each other, but their play is in sync.

“I know other D pairings are always chit-chatting on the ice, but I think everyone’s different, and I think that’s why we mesh so well together, because we kind of just take it shift by shift,” Channell-Watkins said. 

“Honestly, she’s probably one of the best defenseman I’ve ever played with. I love her to death. We always just joke around, we’re just here to have fun, but when it comes down to it, we put our head down, we get to work, and I think we have really great chemistry on and off the ice.”

Jaques is a 24-year-old from Toronto and is third on the Frost in scoring across the first four playoff games, with two goals and four assists. She scored seven goals in the regular season, and her 15 assists led the Frost and were one off the league lead. The offensive defender is one of three finalists (along with rookie teammate Claire Thompson) for the PWHL Defender of the Year award.

Following Game 4 against Toronto, Frost coach Ken Klee mentioned Jaques, along with Taylor Heise and Thompson, when addressing what it says about this team that it could make it to the finals in back-to-back years.

“Sophie Jaques is an up-and-comer,” Klee said. “We have a young group, but we also have a veteran group. They’ve been in these situations a lot.”

Jaques is part of a younger group of players who went right from college hockey to getting drafted into the PWHL. But Boston selected Jaques 10th overall in the inaugural PWHL Draft in 2023. She didn’t record a point in seven games played with Boston before she was part of the first trade in PWHL history in February 2024, arriving in Minnesota last season in exchange for Susanna Tapani.

“I was very fortunate to have the transition out of college,” Jaques said. “That makes it a lot easier when you get to come right into a team environment.

“I think that then being around the girls who have been out of college for a while helped make that transition seamless. I think just what this league’s been able to do and to provide a sustainable way to play hockey is really cool to be a part of.”

Early indications were that the trade worked well for both teams, and Jaques fit in well in Minnesota. She scored two goals and 10 points in 15 regular-season games last season before adding two goals and three assists in the playoffs.

“I’ve really enjoyed my time in Minnesota,” Jaques said. “They welcomed me with open arms when I got here. I was thrown into a position to play to my strength and be successful, and I think it’s just been a lot of fun here.”

Jaques bumped her production to seven goals and 22 points in 25 games this season, ranking third on the team in points. She scored a goal and an assist in Games 2 and 3 versus Toronto before adding two assists in the series-clinching game.

She describes herself as an offensive defenseman who likes to speed up the game as much as she can “by transitioning pucks quickly, moving them up the ice and just getting shots on net while also having a good stick in the D zone.”. 

Particularly in the playoffs, Jaques isn’t shy about shooting the puck. She had 75 shots in the regular season this year, plus 11 in the playoffs for an 18.2% shooting percentage.

Jaques grew up playing on outdoor rinks in Toronto, so returning to play professional hockey games now feels like a home game, even though she plays for Minnesota. She also has many childhood memories of playing shinny outside or in backyard rinks.

“Just like a community game that brought people together,” Jaques said. “Just all the friendships and relationships that developed along the way. I think when I look back on hockey, that’s what I’ll remember the most.”

She’ll also have a lot of tangible accolades to look back on.

Jaques is the second all-time defender in scoring at Ohio State with 61 goals and 172 points in five seasons with the Buckeyes, including a national championship in 2022 and a runner-up finish in 2023, when she also won the Patty Kazmaier Memorial Award. Also in 2022, Jaques was the WCHA Defender of the Year and tied Emma Maltais (now playing for Toronto) for Ohio State’s single-season scoring record with 59 points (21 goals, 38 assists).

Channell-Watkins played four seasons at the University of Wisconsin (11 goals, 64 points in 147 games), who has developed a heated rivalry with Ohio State. But Channell-Watkins, 30, didn’t overlap playing against Jaques in college, and Ohio State wasn’t relishing in the success it’s seen recently.

There’s always some joking among Frost teammates about the rivalries between the Badgers, Gophers, and Buckeyes. Often, when the schools play each other during the season, Channell-Watkins said there might be a simple coffee wager on the game.

“You’ll never catch me betting to wear a jersey,” she added, with a laugh.

Never mind the age gap, Jaques and Channell-Watkins work well together as a D pair and have helped produce offense for their team. Channell-Watkins came off a season with just two assists in 24 games before adding four helpers in 10 playoff games last year. In 2024-25, she scored her first PWHL goal and added six assists in the regular season before, just like Jaques, a three-game point streak in the playoffs with a goal and three assists.

Jaques said Channell-Watkins is a shut-down, consistent, and very reliable player.

“I always know where she’s going to be and is always there to support me or cover for me if I do make any mistakes,” Jaques said. “So, I think just having trust and confidence in your D partner, I think we both trust each other, so that’s what allows us to be most successful.”

Channell-Watkins, born in Seattle but a dual citizen of Canada because of her dad, hockey scout Craig Channell, spent most of her childhood playing boys’ hockey in Seattle and then the Detroit area. Playing full-contact with the boys also helped her learn to use her body more as a smaller player; she’s listed at 5-foot-4-inches tall.

“I’m a smaller girl, so I need to be able to stick up for myself,” Channell-Watkins said. “But then once I moved back to Michigan, then girls’ hockey was a little bit more known out in the Midwest than it is out west. So, I played both but mostly girls’ hockey.”  

After college, she played in the CWHL (Canadian Women’s Hockey League) before it folded and then the PWHPA (Professional Women’s Hockey Players Association) before the PWHL formed. She lived in Utah with her husband and played beer-league hockey until the new women’s professional league came along. She hadn’t had regular practices since college, so adjusting to the new league took a while.

“But then once I kind of got back into the swing of things, I found my groove again,” Channell-Watkins said. “So, it was good.”

The Frost have also found their groove again at an optimal time in the season. The team’s depth – from the forward lines to rolling six defenders to rotating two solid goaltenders – is a key to what’s gone right for Minnesota in each of its playoff runs.

With a core group of players who won the championship last year, Minnesota can draw on its Finals experience to hopefully bring home another title. They need three more victories in a best-of-five series to do it.

“I think our biggest strength is our depth, and every single player on our team is valued and contributes,” Jaques said. “I think with these longer series, we’re able to wear down other teams, and I think that’s what’s going to make us successful.”