The Minnesota Frost booked a return trip to the PWHL Final with offense, dispatching Toronto in the league semifinals by scoring 18 goals in four first round games. But the championship round is proving to be a different game altogether.

After another defensive battle, Britta Curl-Salemme scored her second goal of the game in overtime, lifting the Frost to a 2-1 come-from-behind win over the Ottawa Charge in Game 2 of the Walter Cup Final, knotting the best-of-five series 1-1.

Game 3 will be played Saturday at 4 p.m. CDT at Xcel Energy Center.

With an Ottawa defender draped on her, Curl-Salemme slapped a low shot that beat the Ottawa goalie to send the series back to Minnesota.

Trailing by a goal with less than a minute to play, the Frost got their fifth power play of the game when Grace Zumwinkle was hauled down in front of the net. With goalie Maddie Rooney on the bench and Minnesota on a 6-on-4 advantage, Curl-Salemme slapped a rebound between the Ottawa goalie Gwyneth Philips’ knees with 15.4 seconds remaining to force the extra session.

Rooney finished with 37 saves for the Frost, improving to 3-0 in the playoffs.

The game was scoreless with less than three minutes left in regulation. Then Ottawa’s Rebecca Leslie lifted a puck from Frost defender Maggie Flaherty behind the net, and Jocelyne Larocque slipped a low shot past Rooney to give the Charge the late lead.

But Minnesota’s special teams, which had been stymied for the game’s first 59 minutes, found a way to draw level late. Philips had 22 saves for Ottawa, which lost at home for the first time in the playoffs.

Philips sticked away a backhand attempt by Minnesota’s Brooke McQuigge just 35 seconds into overtime, with the Frost forward getting loose in front of the Ottawa net.

As they have done often in these playoffs, the Frost’s offense took a while to get going, but made a stronger push late in the game.

The game’s first power play went Minnesota’s way, and the Frost kept Ottawa hemmed in for much of the two minutes, but managed only one shot on Phillips, as the Charge did exemplary work clogging the net-front and blocking shots.

Early offense continued to be a struggle for Minnesota. After putting four shots on goal in the opening period of Game 1, the Frost had just three first period shots on Thursday.

Things started even worse for Minnesota in the middle frame, as their offense still sputtered and the Frost’s second power play of the game was a disaster, with the Charge controlling the play and testing Rooney repeatedly throughout the two minutes. The Frost made a push late in the period but was still out-shot 16-6 in the frame.

After holding Ottawa without a shot on an early third period power play, the Frost again went to the player advantage when Sophie Jaques was hooked on a rush to the net. This time Minnesota got a pair of pucks to the net front, but still could not solve Phillips.

Rooney, the former Minnesota Duluth star who backstopped Team USA’s 2018 Olympic gold medal, had started Games 2 and 3 of the first round series versus Toronto, putting up unimpressive numbers in saves percentage and goals against, but winning both contests.

Ottawa played Game 2 without forward Katerina Mrazova, who was injured in a neutral zone collision with Curl-Salemme in the series opener. Curl-Salemme, a rookie who played college hockey at Wisconsin, has made some enemies with controversial social media posts when she was a teenager, and with physical play that had her suspended for part of the semifinals. She was booed by Ottawa fans every time she carried the puck, and after the winning goal.

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