Sceptres left looking for adjustments after being unable to solve Nicole Hensley

By Canadian Press on December 31, 2025.

TORONTO — The Toronto Sceptres tilted the ice for much of the final two periods, but just could not figure out Nicole Hensley.

The Minnesota Frost goaltender put on a clinic in her 31-save outing to lead her Professional Women’s Hockey League team to a 5-1 victory over Toronto on Tuesday. On the other hand, Sceptres starter Elaine Chuli, who suffered her first loss of the season, was chased after giving up four goals on 18 shots in two periods.

“Never an easy decision to make,” Toronto head coach Troy Ryan said. ” … To me I think it’s probably more a combination of shake up the team but I think there’s at least two goals that she would like to have back.

“And we need our goalie to make those saves when we’re not putting the puck in the net. We need to keep it close. She knows that. She acknowledged that after the game. … It doesn’t means she’s a bad goaltender. She’s a great goaltender.”

The Sceptres had plenty more grade-A chances than the visitors but aside from Daryl Watts’s opening goal, were continuously robbed by Hensley. Toronto outshot Minnesota 32-25, and 23-14 in the final two frames.

“I think (in the) second period, they took it to us a little bit. We had a lot of turnovers, unfortunately, and they were really going after us,” Frost head coach Ken Klee said. “But we had Nicole. She was outstanding. She kept us in there, made huge saves at key times. And to me, that’s really the tale of the tape.”

“Those are some really big saves,” said Toronto defender Renata Fast, who assisted on Watts’s goal. “I think we had some really high-end chances that we weren’t able to capitalize on. So I think if we get some of those in the back of the net, the game’s different. But it’s hard to score in this league. Goaltenders are really good.”

Kendall Coyne Schofield chased Chuli when she put Minnesota ahead 4-1 with 4.4 seconds left in the second period.

But Watts insisted her team was still positive during the second intermission.

“We liked the way that we played in the second period. And we felt good about coming back and it didn’t work out. So that sucks,” Watts said. “But there’s definitely a lot of good things we did in that game.

“And like Renata said, if we just finish some of the really high grade-A chances we had, the score would be a lot different.”

However, from Ryan’s view, there was something else that stood out.

“We gave up three D-zone faceoff goals against,” he said, while also mentioning his team being among the worst in the league in defensive-zone faceoff win percentage.

” … When you’re unsuccessful in the D- Zone, to me, that’s more of a mentality, and some assignment stuff. We just got to be better in those areas.”

While acknowledging the team being fourth in the PWHL in goals scored, he pointed to the team’s ineffective power play, which has gone 2-for-22 this season. Toronto led the league last season, converting 25.8 per cent of the time.

“I think that most of the finishing that we lost, a lot of their production came from power-play production,” he said. “So our power play being where it’s at right now, we need to make some adjustments.

“I like the offence that was generated tonight. You just saw a lot of logos being hit. Also, I think a fair amount of our shots were sort of clear-sighted, the goalie was able to see it. Most goalies in this league, if they’re able to see them, they’re going to make saves.”

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Watts’s goal made her the second player to reach 50 career points in the PWHL, after reigning MVP Marie-Philip Poulin (55) of the Montreal Victoire.

“Being in the same category as Pou is pretty cool,” Watts said. “She’s my idol ever since I was little, so it’s pretty cool to be in the category with her. But it’s a bit bittersweet to lose the game tonight the way we did.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 31, 2025.

Abdulhamid Ibrahim, The Canadian Press