The Minnesota Whitecaps are National Women's Hockey League champions in their first season in the league.

Defenseman Lee Stecklein scored the game-winning goal 49 seconds into overtime to give the Whitecaps a 2-1 win over the Buffalo Beauts in Sunday's Isobel Cup final at TRIA Rink in St. Paul, Minnesota.

"This one means a lot," Stecklein said on the ice after the game.

After forward Katie McGovern won the faceoff in the offensive zone, Stecklein's shot from the point went five-hole under Beauts goaltender Nicole Hensley to break a 1-1 tie, the Whitecaps bench storming the ice in celebration.

"I can't even believe it, it was so quick," Stecklein said.

While Minnesota scored five goals in its semifinal win over the Metropolitan Riveters on Friday and Buffalo beat the Boston Pride 4-0 in last week's semifinal, Sunday's championship was a defensive battle.

Amanda Leveille made 22 saves while her counterpart Hensley, who led the regular season with a .935 save percentage, recorded 28 saves for the Beauts, who have reached the Isobel Cup final in all four years of the league's existence but won only once.

The teams were scoreless until 2:59 remaining in the first period when Emily Pfalzer's shot from just outside the point made it through traffic past Leveille to give the Beauts a 1-0 lead.

But Amy Menke tied it up tied it up 1 minute, 22 seconds later when she took a cross-ice pass, skated down the right side and sent a shot past Hensley's short side.

The game remained tied until Stecklein's winner.

"Somehow we were gonna find a way to put that puck in," she said.

Through the league's first four years, there have been four different champions.

The Boston Pride won the title in the league's inaugural season in a best-of-three series. The Beauts won it in 2017 when the league moved to a winner-take-all final. They had a chance to repeat last year but lost to the Riveters 1-0.

And now, the Whitecaps are champs.

"It's a dream come true," Minnesota defenseman Winny Brodt Brown said on the ice after the game.