Go Pack

Sorry, I had to say it, its my team!!
Yep, I'm a transplanted Cheezer. Always pulling for the Pack. At least they're still in it (I hope they won today,) unlike the lowly Colts. 😖
Don't spoiler me, I recorded today's game but haven't watched it yet. 😏
first year building up my wood stash. I’m burning ash and a bit of soft maple that was split and stacked in April, most is in the low 20s moisture content.
The stove is a Woodpro 2000, which I believe is a cheap big box store wood stove, it was in the house when we moved in last November. I never would have imagined it would frost over… we did have a bit of a cold snap here (-20ish F at night for about a week and highs in the single digits below zero) and I stopped running the stove for a few days during that time since we had a lot of guests over for Christmas,
Were both the Ash and the soft Maple in the low 20% range when stacked in April, or just was that reading when tested recently? Get several big splits of both species up to room temp for a couple days, then split again and test in the center of the fresh face. If you only test one or two splits, they can be outliers. Even if the soft Maple was from a live tree, in my experience it can get pretty dry over a summer, if stacked and top-covered only so that the wind can blow through. Get more of it if you can, since it'll dry faster than the Ash. Once you get a couple years ahead, you can get slower-drying species like Oak burnable in two or three years. It's three years here since my stacks are in the woods and don't get as much wind..
Your stove is made by Hearth and Home Technologies, a reputable company that also makes higher-end stoves, so I'd imagine what you have is a decent value stove.
I can see how the screen may have gotten frosted over. With a lot of people there, and cooking going on, the air inside might have held a lot of moisture, then got drawn up the chimney by draft and froze on the screen in that cold snap we had.
So I guess there's no liner in the chimney, then? If not, when the chimney is cold it may be hard to establish initial draft. Use the suggestions given earlier to preheat the chimney, and do a search here for more ideas on how to do it.