Liz Schepers' OT goal gives Frost their second straight PWHL Walter Cup with 2-1 win over Charge

ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The Walter Cup is staying in Minnesota and the defending champion Frost once again have Liz Schepers to credit for scoring the championship-clinching goal for a second straight year.

Schepers converted a scramble in front to score 12 minutes into overtime and seal a 2-1 victory over the Ottawa Charge to clinch the title in Game 4 of the best-of-five championship series and close the PWHL's second season.

“Hats off to Ottawa. That was a helluva series," Schepers said. "I could not be more proud of our team. It’s unbelievable.”

All four games of the series were decided by 2-1 scores, and each of them in overtime, including the Frost’s triple-OT victory in Game 3 on Saturday. After losing Game 1 in Ottawa, the Frost responded with three straight wins.

Kelly Pannek scored at the 10:10 mark of the second period, giving Minnesota its first lead in regulation of the series. Maddie Rooney stopped 33 shots and finished the playoffs with a 5-0 record.

Katy Knoll, whose overtime goal sealed Game 3, set up the winner by collecting the puck along the end boards and driving behind the net to feed Schepers in the slot. Goaltender Gwyneth Philips parried the first shot, but Schepers poked home the rebound.

“It was just the start of my shift. I knew Katy and Hymla (Klara Hymlarova) were working really hard behind the goal line and just tried to get lost,” Schepers said. “They made a great play to the front of the net and I was able to get a couple whacks at it and saw the puck go in. And then I was on my back and the celebration was on.”

Schepers, who is from Mound, Minnesota, and played collegiately at Ohio State, was one of 16 Frost players who retuned from last year’s championship team, and this time got the opportunity to celebrate before their home crowd. Minnesota won the inaugural Walter Cup last year with Schepers scoring the opening goal of a 3-0 win at Boston in Game 5.

“I'll win anywhere. It's always fun,” said Frost defenseman Lee Stecklein in a game played in front of an announced crowd of 11,024. “But to get to do it at home is extra special.”

And just like last year, the Frost won the title as the fourth and final-seeded playoff team, and both times advanced to the finals after knocking off Toronto in the semis.

Minnesota sneaked into the playoffs this year with an 8-1 win over Boston on the final day of the regular season. The win led to Ottawa, Minnesota and Boston finishing with 44 points each with the Fleet eliminated based on having fewer regulation wins.

“It’s the belief we have in the room,” Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield said of the team’s resilience.

“It’s hard to put into words,” she added. “I think when you look at the way we won, it takes everybody. That was last year, and this year was no different. ... It took every single player stepping up in some way, shape, or form.”

The Charge, Canada’s first team to reach the finals, forced overtime on Tereza Vanisova’s goal with 9:51 left in the third period. It was her first goal of the playoffs and ended an 11-game goal drought.

Philips finished with 36 saves and was won the Ilana Kloss Trophy as playoff MVP. The rookie finished the playoffs with a 4-4 record, with all four losses coming in overtime. She finished with 148 saves in overtime alone, while allowing just 13 goals on 270 shots for a .952 save percentage and 1.23 goals-against average.

“Right now the individual award is superseded by the team loss,” Philips said. “We were so close and we really wanted that, but my accomplishments are attributed to the players in front of me. So maybe tomorrow will be nicer, but I really wanted to win.”

The rookie from Ohio took over the starting duties after Emerance Maschmeyer was sidelined by a lower body injury in mid-March.

Both teams had their chances in the extra period.

Ottawa’s Aneta Tejralova, on a rush, hit the left post with a shot about five minutes into overtime and the Frost’s Taylor Heise hit the right post about four minutes later.

Both teams face major changes entering the offseason as each of the PWHL’s six teams will lose four players in the expansion process — a signing period followed by an expansion draft — in early June when Vancouver and Seattle begin building their initial rosters.

"I think that’s the toughest part," Charge captain Brianne Jenner said, referring to the upcoming losses. “That was a special run. And it’s going to sting for a while, for sure. But really, really proud of this group.”

AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey

Ottawa Charge players react after losing Game 4 of the PWHL hockey finals in overtime to the Minnesota Frost Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Minnesota Frost forward Liz Schepers (21) accepts applause after scoring the winning goal to defeat the Ottawa Charge in Game 4 of the PWHL hockey finals Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Minnesota Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney celebrates with the Walter Cup after her team won the PWHL hockey finals against the Ottawa Charge, Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Minnesota Frost forward Kendall Coyne Schofield celebrates with the Walter Cup after her team won the PWHL hockey finals against the Ottawa Charge, Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Ottawa Charge goaltender Lucy Morgan, left, and defenseman Ashton Bell, center, dive to save a shot by Minnesota Frost forward Kendall Coyne Schofield (26) during the third period of Game 4 of the PWHL hockey finals Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Minnesota Frost forward Kelly Pannek, center, celebrates at the bench after scoring against the Ottawa Charge during the second period of Game 4 of the PWHL hockey finals Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

Minnesota Frost forward Kelly Pannek (12) and goaltender Maddie Rooney, right, celebrate after Pannek's goal during the second period of Game 4 of the PWHL hockey finals against the Ottawa Charge, Monday, May 26, 2025, in St. Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Ellen Schmidt)

JERUSALEM (AP) — Over two dozen families from one of the few remaining Palestinian Bedouin villages in the central West Bank have packed up and fled their homes in recent days, saying harassment by Jewish settlers living in unauthorized outposts nearby has grown unbearable.

The village, Ras Ein el-Auja, was originally home to some 700 people from more than 100 families that have lived there for decades.

Twenty-six families already left on Thursday, scattering across the territory in search of safer ground, say rights groups. Several other families were packing up and leaving on Sunday.

“We have been suffering greatly from the settlers. Every day, they come on foot, or on tractors, or on horseback with their sheep into our homes. They enter people’s homes daily,” said Nayef Zayed, a resident, as neighbors took down sheep pens and tin structures.

Israel's military and the local settler governing body in the area did not respond to requests for comment.

Other residents pledged to stay put for the time being. That makes them some of the last Palestinians left in the area, said Sarit Michaeli, international director at B’Tselem, an Israeli rights group helping the residents.

She said that mounting settler violence has already emptied neighboring Palestinian hamlets in the dusty corridor of land stretching from Ramallah in the West to Jericho, along the Jordanian border, in the east.

The area is part of the 60% of the West Bank that has remained under full Israeli control under interim peace accords signed in the 1990s. Since the war between Israel and Hamas erupted in October 2023, over 2,000 Palestinians — at least 44 entire communities — have been expelled by settler violence in the area, B'Tselem says.

The turning point for the village came in December, when settlers put up an outpost about 50 meters (yards) from Palestinian homes on the northwestern flank of the village, said Michaeli and Sam Stein, an activist who has been living in the village for a month.

Settlers strolled easily through the village at night. Sheep and laundry went missing. International activists had to begin escorting children to school to keep them safe.

“The settlers attack us day and night, they have displaced us, they harass us in every way” said Eyad Isaac, another resident. “They intimidate the children and women.”

Michaeli said she’s witnessed settlers walk around the village at night, going into homes to film women and children and tampering with the village’s electricity.

The residents said they call the police frequently to ask for help — but it seldom arrives. Settlement expansion has been promoted by successive Israeli governments over nearly six decades. But Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right government, which has placed settler leaders in senior positions, has made it a top priority.

That growth has been accompanied by a spike in settler violence, much of it carried out by residents of unauthorized outposts. These outposts often begin with small farms or shepherding that are used to seize land, say Palestinians and anti-settlement activists. United Nations officials warn the trend is changing the map of the West Bank, entrenching Israeli presence in the area.

Some 500,000 Israelis have settled in the West Bank since Israel captured the territory, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, in the 1967 Mideast war. Their presence is viewed by most of the international community as illegal and a major obstacle to peace. The Palestinians seek all three areas for a future state.

For now, displaced families of the village have dispersed between other villages near the city of Jericho and near Hebron further south, said residents. Some sold their sheep and are trying to move into the cities.

Others are just dismantling their structures without knowing where to go.

"Where will we go? There’s nowhere. We’re scattered,” said Zayed, the resident, “People’s situation is bad. Very bad.”

An Israeli settler herds his flock near his outpost beside the Palestinian village of Ras Ein al-Auja in the West Bank, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

A Palestinian resident of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank burns trash, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian children play in the West Bank village of Ras Ein al-Auja, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)

Palestinian residents of Ras Ein al-Auja village, West Bank pack up their belongings and prepare to leave their homes after deciding to flee mounting settler violence, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)