Michela Cava Always Comes Through When the Frost Need Her Most

Her competitive nature was always high. Even growing up in a hockey family from Thunder Bay, Ont., Michela Cava remembers how she always wanted to win.

“Almost to the point where it was too much,” Cava said. “My mom would be like, ‘OK, you need to chill out. Your friends are actually not going to want to hang out with you anymore when you want to beat them so bad all the time.’”

That feisty, competitive nature has served Cava well in her hockey career, starting with the Thunder Bay Queens as a youth and as she turned professional. She’s currently in her second season with Minnesota in the PWHL. Cava, 30, has found success all over the globe in the professional hockey ranks. Counting the Walter Cup Championship she won in the inaugural PWHL season in 2024, she’s made a run of four consecutive professional championships – not only with four different teams – but in four different leagues and four different countries.

She played four seasons professionally with different teams in Sweden from 2017 to 2021, becoming an SDHL champion with Luleå HF in 2021; Cava scored 10 points in nine playoff games. The following year, in 2022, she was champion of Russia’s Women’s Hockey League on the KRS Vanke Rays team, winning the playoff MVP with 17 points in eight games. She returned to North America and played two seasons with the Toronto Six in the PHF. 

In 2022-23, she was part of the Isobel Cup champion team with the Six. She also earned playoff MVP honors that season, scoring six points in four playoff games.

Then there’s last season’s Walter Cup title with Minnesota in the newly formed PWHL.

“It’s been a pretty crazy ride,” Cava said. “I think the coolest part for me is… going to different countries and then meeting different people from everywhere. That’s, to me, the best part about playing.

“Going overseas was such a cool experience. … I still keep in touch with a lot of people I’ve played with over there.”

This season, Cava’s picked up where she left on the scoresheet with the first-place Minnesota Frost, with three goals and an assist through the first six games. She re-signed with Minnesota, inking a one-year extension on June 21, only a few weeks after winning the championship.  

She’s looking to continue elevating her game this season, focusing on playing more confidently while staying relaxed and having fun on the ice.

“I think obviously I want to try and continue what we started from the last season and roll into this season, just trying to do everything I can on the ice to obviously help the team win the games,” Cava said. “Play like when you’re a kid and just try and enjoy the game.”

She probably could have taken her talents to another PWHL team this season, but Frost coach Ken Klee said Cava told him that she loved it in Minnesota and loved the team. The feeling was mutual for Klee, who values Cava’s “tremendous skillset” and referred to her as a gamer.

“I think for her, just her confidence wasn’t great at the beginning of the year last year,” Klee said. “But as she got here and knew that she was a part of this group and knew that the people in the room cared about her, I think she just picked it up a level.”

Selected in the 12th round of the inaugural PWHL Draft, Cava scored five goals and eight points across all 24 regular-season games last season. But four of those goals and six points came in the final third of the season (eight games) starting March 13.

She didn't register a point in the team's reverse sweep of Toronto in the five-game round to open the playoffs. But in the Walter Cup Final against Boston? Cava scored a goal in four of the five games and added four assists to give her four goals and eight points in the playoffs. That production tied Cava with Taylor Heise for the team’s top scorer in the playoffs.

Cava’s numbers show she’s a proven clutch player in the playoffs. Her back-to-back MVP awards in the playoffs in two other professional leagues are proof.

It was a version of Cava that Klee hoped to see with Minnesota last season. It took a while, but the clutch Cava arrived right on time.

“I could see it every day,” Klee said. “She has skills. I see her win pucks and make plays and that sort of thing. It’s just exciting for us and for her.”

Cava said she’s always held herself to a high standard. While she’s had success playing for many different teams, being with a new team nearly every year makes it hard to “figure out who you are on the team and your role and everything,” Cava said. She added that she feels like she’s established herself in Minnesota with the Frost.

“I just want to not put too much pressure on myself but just continue to be the player I know I can be,” Cava said. “Sometimes it isn’t always on the scoresheet but make sure I do all the right things and be a good teammate and have respect from everybody.”

Cava’s played in different forward line combinations in both Minnesota PWHL seasons; Klee said he likes to keep the lines fresh. She’s on the right wing this season, opposite Kendall Coyne Schofield and Kelly Pannek as the center. Cava’s on a team with eight Minnesota natives and superstar players like Heise and Grace Zumwinkle.

So, could it be easy to fly under the radar?

“Oh, for sure,” Pannek said. “I think there’s a lot of people like that on our team that fly under the radar, truthfully, which happens when you have superstars on your team, too.

“[Cava is] such an important piece on whatever line she’s on. That it might not always show up. Playoffs, it’ll show up on the scoresheet, but a lot of times it doesn’t.”

Pannek cited Cava’s ability to play off the puck and is also responsible with the puck on the defensive side because she reads plays so well. Cava will continue her game of making plays and putting pucks in the back of the net, Pannek added.

As a former Gophers star, Pennek also remembers playing against Cava during her last two collegiate seasons at UMD. Cava played two seasons at the University of Connecticut before transferring to UMD to be closer to home. 

With a Bulldogs team that included Lara Stalder, a standout Olympian from Switzerland who got a lot of attention, Pannek said Cava probably didn’t get the credit or attention she deserved there either. Cava scored 19 goals and 19 assists in her second season at UMD in 2015-16.

“But I mean, if anyone’s ignoring her now,” Pennek said. “I think it’s kind of foolish on their part.”