PWHL playoff notebook: A top seed toppled in Game 1 and a suspended rookie

When Game 2 of the best-of-five series between the Toronto Sceptres and Minnesota Frost resumes on Friday night at Coca-Cola Coliseum, it will be without Frost rookie Britta Curl-Salemme.

The league announced on Friday that it had suspended Curl-Salemme for a "high and forceful check" to the head of Toronto defender Renata Fast. She was assessed a five-minute major penalty and game misconduct, which ended her night.

Fast, who has arguably been Toronto's best player this season, took some time to get back to her feet. She resumed play, and head coach Troy Ryan said on Thursday that "everything's fine" with Fast.

Toronto's captain, Blayre Turnbull, made it clear that she didn't like the play.

"I thought it was a pretty ugly hit," she said after the game.

In reviewing the hit, the PWHL's Player Safety Committee determined that Curl-Salemme made Fast's head the main point of contact on a play "where such contact to the head was avoidable."

It's the third time this season that Curl-Salemme has been suspended, as the league looks to crack down on hits to the head. She missed one game in January after a high-sticking incident, and another in March for another illegal hit to the head.

The day before her most recent suspension was announced, Minnesota Frost head coach Ken Klee defended his player, describing the hit as a "hockey play."

"She's not a malicious player or a malicious person who's out trying to get someone," Klee said.

But Klee said Curl-Salemme is "trying to learn from it and keep knowing where that line is." 

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Finding that line and adjusting to it