Natalie Spooner earned the first assist on the play, her first of two on the night. Toronto completed the comeback five minutes into the third period when rookie forward Kiara Zanon scored on a rushing note to give the Scepters a 2-1 lead. Kirk closed the door from there, deflecting every Minnesota attempt the rest of the way to secure the first win of the new season. Maddie Rooney made 17 saves in net for Minnesota.
QUOTES
Toronto newcomer Kiara Zanon on her first PWHL goal: “Every goal feels great, anytime you can do it with this team I think it’s going to be pretty special. The game itself was a really good escape. Emma [Maltais] stood in the middle of the ice helping me and calling out so I knew where she was. I was able to say it to her in the middle and she made a great move to send me off. I just shot it – just a quick break after a breakaway, a good play on the ice and I’m looking forward to getting that going even further.
Scepters Head Coach Troy Ryan on Raygan Kirk and the defense’s performance: “I thought she was great. The comment was just made that there weren’t many second and third chances. It just gave us a chance to play and a chance to win to be honest. For her, without Renata Fast playing, there’s a lot of minutes that had to be eaten up by some of our D. We shortened the bench quite a bit, there was the injury [Watts, who returned] in the third period, so we had to limit it from the back. I thought they did a great job making sure any rebounds that were left there were cleaned up. The combination of the D and Kirk was excellent.”
Frost ahead Taylor Heise on the pre-match celebration: “It was really special. I found myself thinking back to those moments. I remember our celebration and it brings back a lot of great memories. Sometimes you forget that during the months of training in the summer. It was nice to bring that up again and it builds confidence that you can do it. Just going and watching all that hard work was great.”
Minnesota head coach Ken Klee on the team’s performance: “To be honest, our one line was buzzing pretty well to start, but our other lines I think struggled a little bit early, but then we found our rhythm and got going. The games are going to be tight. We made two mistakes – individual mistakes, not even team or structural ones, and they buried them both. We hit four or five posts and we had plenty of chances to score, but we just have to finish.”
NOTES
Minnesota has lost two consecutive home openers in which they have raised a Walter Cup championship banner to the limit.
Kiara Zanon became the first PWHL rookie since Minnesota Grace Zumwinkle (January 3, 2024) to score a game-winning goal in their first career match. The Scepters second-round pick also scored in both of the team’s preseason scrimmages.
Raygan Kirk has stopped 30 or more shots in four of her 11 career games. The second-year netminder also became the first Toronto goaltender to receive a penalty and retire.
Kendall Coyne Schofield has scored a first-period goal in consecutive season openers. Frost’s captain led the team with 12 goals in 30 games in 2024-2025.
Ella Shelton has recorded points in all three season-opening games of her PWHL career. The Scepters’ trade acquisition on draft day netted an assist for New York last season in Minnesota on Dec. 1, 2024, and famously scored the first goal in league history in the opening game in Toronto on Jan. 1, 2024.
Natalie Spooner recorded her first career multi-assist game and has contributed an assist in her first game of the season in back-to-back campaigns. Last season, she made her debut at home against Minnesota on February 11, after missing the team’s first 15 games while recovering from an injury.
Emma Maltese has points in five straight outings, including tonight’s assist, dating back to her lone preseason scrimmage (2G) and three playoff games last season (1G, 3A). She also has points in back-to-back season-opening wins for the Sceptres.
Savannah Harmon scored an assist after being held without a point in her first fourteen games last season, split between Ottawa (6) and Toronto (8).
Britta Curl-Salemme And To Kelly Pan have both recorded an assist in consecutive season openers for Minnesota.
The penalty shot taken by To pans was only the second of the last two PWHL seasons and the fifth all-time. There has never been a successful penalty kick in the history of the competition.
Maddie Rooney made her first season opening of her career. This was the first time in three seasons where she did not win her first start of the campaign.
Renata Quick was left out of Toronto’s lineup tonight due to an upper-body injury. This is the first game she has missed in her PWHL career.
Toronto had seven new faces in their lineup tonight, including Zanon and fellow draft picks Emma Gentry, Sara Hjalmarsson And Clara Van Wieren all of whom were making their PWHL debuts. Shelton and offseason signees Claire Dalton And Clair DeGeorge all made their Scepters debut. 
Minnesota had six new players in the lineup, including draft picks Peyton Anderson, Kendal Cooper, Abby Hustler And Vanessa Upson all of whom were making their PWHL debuts. Minnesota residents Madison Bizal (Elkrivier) and Sidney Morin (Minnetonka) both made their Frost debut.
Denisa Křížováreacquired by Minnesota in a Thursday trade with Vancouver, is one of 17 Frost players who are returning members of the 2024-2025 team that posed for a photo with the Walter Cup Championship Banner to close the opening ceremony.
Minnesota defeated Toronto 31-19 tonight, continuing the trend from last season when they defeated the Scepters in four of the six regular season meetings.
This was the first time in three seasons that Toronto went on the road.
THREE STARS
1. Kiara Zanon (TOR) 1G
2. Kendall Coyne Schofield (MIN) 1G
3. Raygan Kirk (TOR) 30/31 SV
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