TORONTO — Natalie Spooner is happy to get a second crack at the post-season.
Spooner and the Toronto Sceptres are locked into a best-of-five semifinal rematch against the defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost in the Professional Women's Hockey League playoffs, with Game 1 going Wednesday at Coca-Cola Coliseum.
The 34-year-old forward returned Feb. 11, a 3-2 overtime win against Minnesota, from surgery on a torn anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee suffered in Game 3 of last season's playoffs against the Frost. Minnesota won that best-of-five series 3-2 after Toronto was up 2-0.
"It feels great," Spooner said. "I think, obviously, it was hard at the beginning of the season to kind of see a bit of a struggle that the team went through. And I was just crossing my fingers that we'd get enough points that by the time I could come back, we'd be able to be in a good spot to make it to the playoffs.
"I think our team showed a lot of resilience through this year, and we won in a lot of different ways. And so I think there's a lot that this year has kind of taught us, and that we can bring that into the playoffs with us too."
Spooner, who had three goals and two assists in 14 games, said there is a desire to avenge last season's playoff loss.
"I think for me, for sure, and I think a lot of the girls that were there last year," she said. "But at the same time, we have a lot of new girls. They have some new girls, too.
"So I think any playoff game is exciting. But I think, you know, we're going to be as ready as we can for that game. ... It's in the back of your mind a bit what happened last year."
The Frost (10 regulation wins, five overtime wins, four overtime losses and 11 regulation losses) took the season series 2-2-1-1 against Toronto (12-3-6-9), with three of the games going to overtime or shootout. Minnesota closed the year winning three of its last four, including an 8-1 regular-season finale win on Saturday over Boston to clinch a playoff berth.
"Natalie Spooner was a big loss for them early in the year. ... I know she scored a couple of shootout goals the other day, so she's finding her scoring touch, which I think we all knew she would," Frost head coach Ken Klee said Sunday when playoff matchups were announced.
"It's going to be a tough battle. We know that starting out on their ice, it's going to be tough. We know it's the first team to win three games, and it's not easy to do, and it's not easy to get there. Right now, we're just trying to focus on Game 1."
The Sceptres enter this post-season in a different place than last year.
In the league's inaugural season, the Sceptres were sluggish to start before cruising to a first-place finish in the regular season, with Spooner leading the PWHL in goals (20) and points (27) en route to winning league MVP.
Toronto enters these playoffs having not had a fully healthy lineup for majority of the season, but still finishing second in the regular-season standings.
The Sceptres lost top rookie defender Megan Carter before the season, and she returned on Jan. 25. Shortly before getting Spooner back, the team lost star forward Sarah Nurse to injury for almost two months.
"I think we have all the right reasons to be confident in our group," star defender Renata Fast said after Saturday's 2-1 OT loss to Ottawa. "I mean, this league is so tight every single night. It's low-scoring games. It comes down to one or two plays.
"I think, we've been building our game all season long. I truly don't think we've hit our peak and there's no better time to do it than now. So I think the group is confident we're gonna refocus after this game and be excited to have home-ice advantage going into the playoffs."
Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan said neutral zone play will be a big factor in the matchup, as well as handling changes throughout the game.
"The importance of understanding momentum swings is really, really big," he said. "They're going to happen no matter what. It's just how you manage with them.
"You hear it all the time in the NHL. It's managing those big swings in a series and the big swings in a game, and if you can manage them, it'll give you a chance."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 6, 2025.
Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press
