The injury bug has hit the Frost early in the second PWHL season. Thursday night at Xcel Energy Center, another kind of bug left the defending champions even more shorthanded.

To that end, Frost center Britta Curl-Salemme’s game-winning goal in overtime that beat the Boston Fleet 4-3 was as symbolic as it was dramatic.

With center Taylor Heise and goaltender Maddie Rooney unavailable due to illness and others on the team playing at less than 100 percent, the Frost were “playing on fumes” in the latter stages of the game as Boston erased a 3-1 third-period deficit to send the game into overtime.

Then came Curl-Salemme, with little left in the tank, scoring on a breakaway after Frost defender Claire Thompson made a sprawling play to break up a two on one at the other end of the ice.

“I was so tired I didn’t think I was going to make it down the ice,” Curl-Salemme said. “Luckily I had a little bit of a head start.”In an on-ice interview immediately after the game, Curl-Salemme told the crowd it was probably the slowest breakaway she had ever scored on.

“I don’t even want to watch the replay,” she said. “People told me it looked like I was skating on an incline.”

The Frost announced before the game that goaltender Lucy Morgan has been elevated from the reserve list and has been signed to a 10-day contract. The former Gophers standout served as Nicole Hensley’s backup.

The Frost already are playing without defender Sophie Jacques and forward Dominique Petrie due to injury. Forward Grace Zumwinkle did not return to the Frost bench after the first period after sustaining an undisclosed injury.

Frost coach Ken Klee said Zumwinkle will see a doctor on Friday to determine the extent of the injury.

“We had players dropping quickly,” Klee said, “but I’m proud of our group for finding a way to win. I would have liked to have three points in regulation, but Boston is a good team.

“They’re going to keep fighting until the end, and they did. Luckily we were able to battle it out in overtime.”

Klee said the team has been dealing with illness for the past week.

“First practice after back from Christmas we were missing seven players,” he said. “It’s kind of working its way through us.”

Boston entered the game in last place in the PWHL, having scored a league-low 12 goals in six games. The Frost broke the scoreless tie with a pair of goals 53 seconds apart midway through the second period.

Claire Butorac slid a rebound past Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel at 9:06 after a strong rush to the net by Mellissa Channell-Watkins. Brooke Bryant made it 2-0 when she beat Frankel on a turnaround shot from the slot.

Boston captain Hilary Knight cut the Frost’s lead inhale at 7:05 of the third period, beating Hensley on a rebound.

The Frost went on a power play at 9:27 and needed only eight seconds to cash in when Brooke McQuigge scored on a rebound.

The Fleet got a power-play of their own at 16:43 to make it a 3-2 game when Susanna Tapani scored on a backhander in the slot. Forty-three seconds later, Tapani came right back to score on a wrist shot from the left-wing circle to tie the game.

Bryant said the Frost knew coming in that they would have to find a way to grind out a victory.

“Any time we play Boston we know it’s going to be a physical game,” she said. “It’s going to be all three periods that we’re going to have to grind through — sometimes extra.

“We knew what we were getting into. It was just a matter of fighting through and pushing for each other.”

The Frost will host New York on Saturday, with puck drop scheduled for 1 p.m.