The Minnesota Frost stars brought Olympic gold back to the "state of hockey" this week, and the Twin Cities area is celebrating a major homecoming.
Six members of the Minnesota Frost returned from Italy with Olympic gold medals following a thrilling 2-1 overtime victory over Canada. That was matched by the U.S. men who also took gold medals following an OT victory over Canada.
Plymouth native Kelly Pannek is one of those Frost players who was also part of Team USA and tells the WCCO Morning News with Vineeta Sawkar that this latest triumph secures her status in the elite Triple Gold Club. That is winning Olympic gold, World Championship gold and the Walter Cup.
"That my career at this point has just been a dream come true," she says. "I couldn't have imagined it. And when I started playing hockey and decided to continue on to college and then beyond, I was really grateful to be a part of some great teams. And I think, you call me a rock star, but you know, every team I've been on is full of them."
Fans are now turning their attention to the Frost's return to professional play this Sunday in Montreal, where the team aims to use their international momentum to reclaim the top spot in the PWHL standings.
Also a former Golden Gopher, Pannek secured her second Olympic gold medal in Italy. She says now their attention turns to preparing for the final stretch of the PWHL season for the second-place Frost. That resumes with a high-stakes road game against Montreal this Sunday.
"Naturally a really big, big game and a lot of tensions with the Olympians returning," Pannek explained. "It's just going to be fun to get back to it and hopefully pick up where we left off before the Olympic break."
The upcoming matchup will test whether the team can maintain their Olympic momentum to overtake Boston for the top seed.
Olympic hockey and the success of the men's and women's team didn't come without some controversy.
After the victory by the men's team, a video that circulated on social media appearing to show President Donald Trump inviting the team on a phone call in the locker room, as he joked that he’d also have to invite the women’s team, or he'd be "impeached."
That drew laughter from the men's team, and reportedly irked many of the women who did decline an invite to the White House. They say logistics and scheduling was the reason for not going, though expressed gratitude for that invite.
The U.S. women's team captain, Hillary Knight, made it clear they weren't a fan of being joked about by the president and the men's team, and felt it overshadowed their success.
"The joke was distasteful and unfortunate," she said at a press conference. "Now I have to sit in front of you and explain someone else's behavior. It's not my responsibility," Knight said.
Former Gopher and Minnesota Frost player Taylor Heise, who assisted on the U.S. team's game-winning goal against Canada, said they just want to move on.
"I can't wait 'til this blows over in a week and we can go back to each team being proud of what we accomplished. And proud of each other," Heise explained.
But it is also clear it bothered the women's team. Heise and Knight were not the only players who seemed put-off by the joking at their expense. But Pannek said she wants the focus to be on the success of the women at the Olympics, not what she called an inappropriate joke.
"The video and the response to the call was an inappropriate joke and an inappropriate response, but I also think that mistakes happen on people," she told WCCO. "And it doesn't always reflect your character. In our experience with the men's team, it was really fun to be over there. They were super supportive of us. We were supportive of them. We shared a lot of common spaces, and they were, you know, they were locked into our tournament. A lot of them came to some of our games. We were able to get to some of theirs when we could and I like that piece of it."
For Pannek, the politics of the moment is overshadowing what should be a moment to celebrate U.S. hockey.
"It really should just be about celebrating our accomplishments as well as theirs, and I think it's such a special time," Pannek said, adding she's looking forward to the U.S. Paralympic team making it "three for three."