Taylor Heise will forever be known as the player who scored the first goal for team Minnesota in the Professional Women’s Hockey League.

A closer look, however, shows the goal was one of two shots on goal she registered in the first two games of the season. As the center on Minnesota’s top line she had not been as productive as she or her coach, Ken Klee, would have liked.

That changed on Wednesday night at Xcel Energy Center, as Heise scored twice and added a beautiful assist in Minnesota’s 3-1 win over Toronto before an announced crowd of 4,707.

Klee felt the need to have a talk with Heise at Wednesday’s morning skate, and he got the results he was looking for.

“She’s a 23-year-old first-year pro,” Klee said. “She really hasn’t played in many gold medal games (as part of Team USA). These games are like gold medal games every night. I had a great talk with her and she wants to be better.

“She knows she can be better. The first two games she was OK, but she knows she can be better. Obviously, she takes feedback well. She wants to get better. I want to coach, and I want a player who wants to get better. She is definitely that.”

Heise appreciated what amounted to words of encouragement.

“He’s a great coach,” she said, “and I try to take everything he says and try to collaborate and do better. Today I think it was more so just taking the weight off my shoulders, and not everything needs to be 100 miles per hour.

“Just slow down and enjoy the moment. And just going through some film. I told him I don’t like to go through film myself. I feel I am too harsh of a judger. We went through it together, and it went for the better. “

Heise said she wouldn’t go as far as to say that she was disappointed in her first two games.

“I just know I could do better,” she said. “I’m just glad we won, and that’s all that matters at the end of the day.”

Toronto coach Troy Ryan went into the game knowing his team needed to contain Heise.

“She’s obviously a skilled player; she plays a confident game,” Ryan said. “We just gave her way too much space. I felt at times that we were just watching her play.

“You give her any kind of gap like that, she is going to make people pay.”

Heise gave Minnesota a 1-0 lead with two minutes to play in the first period. After gaining control of the puck in the neutral zone, Heise used her speed to get behind the Toronto defense down the left wing, cut to the front of the net and tucked the puck past Toronto goaltender Kristen Campbell from in tight.

Heise said it was one of the types of plays Klee had talked to her about.

“He said don’t always try to drive middle,” Heise said. “Drive middle, take a step and go to the outside.”

Toronto tied the game at 3:43 of the second period on a goal by former Wisconsin Badgers star Sarah Nurse. Heise’s second of the game came at 11:11 of the period, when she skated in alone on Campbell and fired the puck in just under the crossbar.

She set up linemate Kendall Coyne for the third goal at 8:43 of the third period.

It was plenty of offense on a night when Minnesota got strong goaltending for the third straight game, with Nicole Hensley picking up her second win.

Minnesota is the only unbeaten team in the league, and the fast start is huge knowing that the 24-game regular season is more of a sprint than a marathon.

“It’s going to be a battle,” Klee said. “We’re in the grind of it now. We’re playing every other day now, but then we’re going to have a week off, two weeks off.

“If you don’t have points already banked by then you could be in trouble.”

Briefly

The Gophers women’s hockey team attended the game. The No. 2 Gophers host No. 1 Ohio State this weekend.