Four teams remain in the quest to claim the Walter Cup, the PWHL’s holy grail.
Half of the league’s teams made the post-season cut off in its third season, which came down to the wire last Saturday.
Just one game decided first and second place atop the standings between the Montreal Victoire and Boston Fleet, and one game decided whether the Ottawa Charge or Toronto Sceptres would secure the fourth and final playoff spot.
The Victoire finished first and earned the right to choose its first-round playoff opponent. Montreal selected the two-time champions, the Minnesota Frost. The series will begin on Saturday at 2 p.m. ET, followed by Game 2 on Tuesday, May 5 at 7 p.m. ET.
In the other semifinal, the Boston Fleet have home-ice advantage against the Ottawa Charge. Game 1 in Lowell, Mass. is set for Thursday at 7 p.m., followed by Game 2 on Saturday at 7 p.m.
CBC Ottawa caught up with the Ottawa Charge to get their final thoughts before they head south to Massachusetts for the PWHL playoffs.
“At the end of the day, you don’t know what the key ingredients are going to be [to win a Walter Cup],” said Ottawa Charge head coach Carla MacLeod, whose team lost in the final to Minnesota last season. “You’ve got to play it, to live it, and that’s what we’re most excited about.”
Here’s a look at what to expect and key storylines to watch in each playoff series.
No. 1 Montreal vs. No. 3 Minnesota
No team has been hotter than the Victoire in the second half of the season. Montreal set a PWHL record by recording points in 16 consecutive games.
What made that streak even more impressive is that the Victoire played stretches without key players, including captain Marie-Philip Poulin, defender Erin Ambrose and forward Maureen Murphy.
In the past two post-season campaigns, where the Victoire failed to make it past the first round, lack of depth was Montreal’s undoing. But this Victoire team looks deeper than ever.
Lina Ljungblom scores in the sixth round of the shootout to lift Montreal to a 2-1 victory. The Victoire will select their first-round opponent, which will either be the Minnesota Frost or the Ottawa Charge. Seattle’s loss means the Vancouver Goldeneyes will have the first pick in the PWHL Draft. Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin and Maureen Murphy were both back in action after being on long-term injured reserve.
It starts in net with Ann-Renée Desbiens, who allowed only 1.11 goals against while playing 25 of 30 games for the Victoire this season. You’d have to go all the way back to Jan. 18 to find a game that Montreal has lost in regulation with Desbiens in net. (It was a loss against Montreal, and Desbiens only allowed two goals.)
When Ambrose was injured after the Olympic break, the team relied more on veteran Kati Tabin and rookie Nicole Gosling on the blue line. The latter has only grown throughout her first season in the PWHL, and has become a key member of the Montreal power play.
“Gosling has been a big reason why our D-core has had success, our team has had success. and I couldn’t be happier for such a great person,” head coach Kori Cheverie said.
Up front, players like Laura Stacey, Lina Ljunblom and Hayley Scamurra picked up the load without Poulin, proving that this team’s offence doesn’t solely flow through the captain.
An injury has kept Poulin out of game action for a big chunk of the second half of the season.
She returned to play in the final game of the regular season, logging just over 17 minutes against Seattle.
No one but Poulin knows exactly how much she’s hurting, but the star at any level is a boost for Montreal.
“The heart, the mind is there,” Poulin said when asked about her health. “I’m going to do anything possible to play my game.”
The Victoire will take on the Frost, the only team that’s won the Walter Cup in the three-year-old league.
Many of the key members of those two teams are back, including captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, do-it-all forward Kelly Pannek, stalwart defender Lee Stecklein, and star forward Taylor Heise.
They also return with a tandem of two goaltenders, Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley, who’ve shared the load en route to two championships.
“The experience absolutely helps,” Coyne Schofield said about her team’s two Walter Cups. “It’s a best-of-five series. It’s unlike anything that has come before what we have here in the PWHL. So it is unique, but I think we have a handful of players in the room who have won. And if they haven’t won in the PWHL, they’ve won before coming to the PWHL.”
Pannek has long played the role of utility forward who can slot up and down the lineup. She’s an ace in the faceoff circle, and in the past, could be counted on for a few goals here and there for Minnesota.
This year, she’s set career bests in points (33) and goals (16), finishing at the top of both categories league wide.
Coyne Schofield was also in the midst of a banner year before an injury sustained at the Olympics kept her out of action for most of March.
Heise, who’s quickly become one of the best playmakers in the game, has proven she can elevate her game even higher in the playoffs.
Add in depth from forwards like Grace Zumwinkle, Britta Curl-Salemme and Abby Hustler, and Minnesota is a tough team to shut down.
The Frost have proven, twice, that they have the leadership, grit and endurance to get to the top of the mountain.
But to get back there, they’ll need to find a way to solve Desbiens. That’s been a challenge for Minnesota this season. The team put only three pucks past Desbiens over four regular-season games.
“It’s no secret that Ann-Renée is an incredible goaltender,” Coyne Schofield said. “It’s going to be getting pucks to the net, getting inside the dots, taking her eyes away and capitalizing on second and third chances that are at the net front.”
No. 2 Boston vs. No. 4 Ottawa
By picking Minnesota, the Victoire also got to pick the Fleet’s opponent.
That set up a matchup that should be a challenge for the second-ranked Fleet. Boston didn’t earn a regulation win over Ottawa in four meetings this season.
The Fleet had a strong season, bolstered by terrific goaltending from Aerin Frankel, the leadership of captain Megan Keller, and a new coach in Kris Sparre.
From the beginning of the season, things just seemed to click in Boston.
“For us to be able to hit the ground running early in the season really expedited the process of buy in throughout our lineup and throughout our team,” Sparre said. “Credit to our group and our and our leadership group in specific for taking ownership of the systems, the identity and the culture that we wanted to bring to Boston and upholding those every day. I think that we found a level of consistency throughout the season that gave us a chance to win most nights.”
When the Fleet struggled offensively, GM Danielle Marmer traded for Jessie Eldridge, who’s fit seamlessly since moving from Seattle. She’s registered 10 points in 11 games in a green jersey, including seven goals, while building chemistry alongside Alina Müller.
With Eldridge in the mix, the Fleet feel like a complete team. There’s a blue line that can move the puck well, led by Keller and Haley Winn. There are two of the strongest shooting threats in the league in Eldridge and Susanna Tapani. Plus, there’s one of the best middle-six groups in the league, with players like Abby Newhook and Shay Maloney able to move up and down the lineup, contribute offence and forecheck.
Ottawa, meanwhile, has relied heavily on a top line of captain Brianne Jenner, Rebecca Leslie, and rookie Sarah Wozniewicz.
It’s been a breakout season for Leslie, who has experience playing alongside Jenner dating back to their time on the Canadian Women’s Hockey League’s Calgary Inferno in 2019.
“The purpose that she brings to her practices and her training, she’s always looking for ways to get better, and I think I saw that training with her this summer,” Jenner said. “The way that she came into the season, the way that she was skating, the accuracy with her shot, so many pieces to her game were just so dialed in I think from the start of the season.”
But the rookie, Wozniewicz, brings the forechecking that often sets the stage for Jenner and Leslie to work their magic.
“We’re able to create a lot of quick transition offence because of what [Wozniewicz] brings to our line,” Jenner said.
The series could come down to a goaltending battle between the American team’s number one, Frankel, and its number two, Gwyneth Philips.
Philips is a big part of the reason why Ottawa clinched a playoff spot down the stretch. She allowed only two goals in the last four games, and has been steady under a big workload all season long.
The second-year goaltender was last year’s Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP, even though her team fell short against Minnesota — proving that high stakes and big moments don’t rattle her.
It sets the table for a match-up that should be decided by inches.
“[They’re] two of the best goalies in the world, in my opinion,” Keller said. “Not just saying that. We don’t bring home an Olympic gold medal without both of them.”
