Former University of Maine women’s ice hockey star Tereza Vanisova scored the game-winning goal in overtime on Sunday night to give her Toronto Six a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Whitecaps in the Isobel Cup championship game for the Premier Hockey Federation at the Mullett Arena in Tempe, Arizona.
The speedy Vanisova pokechecked the puck away from Minnesota’s Liz Schepers in the right corner, muscled her way to net front and roofed a 12-foot wrist shot from the bottom of the right faceoff circle over the left shoulder of goalie Amanda Leveille.
Vanisova was named the Player of the Game.
It was Toronto’s first ever championship and the Six became the first Canadian franchise to win the Cup in the league’s history. The league was founded in 2015 when it was called the National Women’s Hockey League.
Toronto is in its third year of existence.
Toronto reached the final by winning the final two games of a best-of-three series against Connecticut. Toronto finished second during the regular season and Connecticut was third.
Fourth seed Minnesota swept defending two-time champ and top seed the Boston Pride.
Vanisova, UMaine’s all-time leading career women’s hockey team scorer with 129 points (63 goals, 66 assists) in 129 career games, became just the second player in league history to play on three Isobel Cup-winning teams.
She now shares the honor with Boston Pride captain Jillian Dempsey.
Vanisova played for the Cup-winning Pride the previous two seasons before joining the Six this year.
Vanisova has now scored three goals and assisted on four others in nine Isobel Cup playoff games for the Pride and Six.
Vanisova had five goals and nine assists in 20 games during the regular season for Toronto.
She will share the Cup with her former UMaine teammate, Carly Jackson, who was the backup goaltender for the Six and was 5-0 with a 1.90 goals-against average and a .926 save percentage during the regular season.
The 27-year-old Vanisova, who plays for the Czechia national team, graduated from UMaine in 2020.
