For the first time in PWHL history, a Canadian team will win the Walter Cup.
The stage was set for an all-Canadian Walter Cup final after the Montreal Victoire defeated the back-to-back champion Minnesota Frost in a deciding Game 5 on Tuesday night. The Ottawa Charge got here by defeating the Boston Fleet in four games earlier this week.
The best-of-five series, which begins in Laval, Que. on Thursday, should be fast and physical. It should also be a goaltending battle between Ottawa’s Gwyneth Philips and Montreal’s Ann-Renée Desbiens, who’ve both had stellar postseasons so far.
Desbiens leads all goaltenders with an average of 1.56 goals against over five games, including several big saves under immense pressure from Minnesota’s high-octane offence on Tuesday night.
“The recipe doesn’t really change [from the series against Boston],” Ottawa Charge captain Brianne Jenner said on Wednesday. “It’s how hard are you going to work to get in front of her, to get on the loose pucks around the net, just to make her life as difficult as possible because we know she’s a great player.”
Philips has also faced a huge workload, but remained steady as Ottawa was outshot by Boston in each of the four semifinal games. Last year’s playoff MVP has proven that she handle the brightest of lights, posting a 1.62 goals-against average over four playoff games.
“When something maybe didn’t go quite technically right for herself or she wasn’t quite sure on a play [or] a goal is scored, she just doesn’t waver in those moments,” Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod said.
Thursday, May 14: Game 1, Ottawa at Montreal, 7 p.m. ET
Saturday, May 16: Game 2, Ottawa at Montreal, 2 p.m. ET
Monday, May 18: Game 3, Montreal at Ottawa, 6 p.m. ET
Wednesday, May 20: Game 4, Montreal at Ottawa, 7 p.m. ET (if necessary)
*Game 5 TBD (if necessary)
Montreal won three of four head-to-head battles between these two teams in the regular season. But the playoffs are a different beast, and the Victoire will be looking to avenge a semifinal loss to the Charge last season.
It promises to be a battle from Thursday’s puck drop at 7 p.m. ET inside Place Bell.
Here’s a look at what to watch on each team.
Montreal is led by Marie-Philip Poulin, the captain who’s put her team on her back while appearing to play through a great deal of pain.
There’s plenty of evidence that Poulin is always at her best in the biggest of games, and this year’s postseason hasn’t been any different. Poulin scored the game winner in two of Montreal’s wins against Minnesota. On Tuesday, she also orchestrated the play that put the puck on Catherine Dubois’ stick and into the net to open the scoring.
Captain Clutch strikes again as Poulin leads Victoire to win over Frost advancing to Walter Cup final
Less heralded is Poulin’s defensive impact. When Montreal needed to protect a one-goal lead to get to the final, the captain was on the ice, blocking shots.
“It gives me goosebumps,” Desbiens said about the prospect of her captain and long-time teammate lifting the Walter Cup, just about the only trophy Poulin hasn’t won yet in her storied career.
“I would be so lucky as a teammate to have the opportunity to share this moment with her because of everything she’s done, because of everything she’s still doing and everything she will do after, too. She is a legend. She is Captain Clutch, the one and only one.”
The biggest story on Montreal this season has been Montreal’s depth. The team found itself without Poulin and defender Erin Ambrose for stretches this season, absences that would have been difficult for previous iterations of this team to overcome.
Instead, the Victoire went on a 16-game point streak. That was because of the talent the team built around players like Poulin, Ambrose and Laura Stacey this past summer. Players like free-agent signing Hayley Scamurra and rookie defender Nicole Gosling stepped up after the Olympic break to keep the Victoire rolling without some of its stars.
Poulin and Stacey were both a big part of the reason the Victoire made it to a final for the first time. But the team also saw offensive contributions from Scamurra, Dubois, Shiann Darkangelo, Maggie Flaherty and Maureen Murphy, to name a few.
That depth is the biggest thing that makes Montreal a different team than the one that lost to Ottawa last May. Confidence is a factor, too.
“I think maybe in the past, if you get down a goal, it’s hard to kind of climb out of that,” Cheverie said after Tuesday’s win. “I felt like we never felt that way. I thought that there was a lot of belief. The players have taken over a lot of the conversation of what needs to happen in terms of in between periods and that’s a great team to coach, when they know what needs to happen next and they can kind of calm the group down.”
The Charge, meanwhile, continue to prove people wrong. The team climbed back into playoff position in the second half of this season, powered by by quick play in transition and plenty of hitting.
One year after losing in the Walter Cup final to Minnesota, the Charge go into this series with one more year of experience, and still something to prove.
“The fact that we’ve been through the playoffs here, got ourselves into a Walter Cup final now two years in a row, we just recognize that it’s going to be taking it shift by shift,” MacLeod said. “It’s going to be taking it period by period. These series are long and they’re a grind, but our group, we’re excited about it and we’re built for that.”
The team’s top line, centred by Jenner and flanked by Ottawa native Rebecca Leslie and rookie Sarah Wozniewicz, has carried much of the offensive load.
Jenner posted a career-best offensive year with 26 points in 30 games during the regular season. One of the architects of the league and long one of the most underrated players in women’s hockey, Jenner has another opportunity to try to hoist a Walter Cup.
“I think Brianne is just one of the best players to have ever played our game,” MacLeod said.
“[She’s] been the consummate leader for our group and obviously is a key component and key contributor as to why we are here talking about the Walter Cup again this season.”
Jenner logged only one point during the semifinal series against Boston, but Ottawa found other contributors in the lineup. Fanuza Kadirova, a steal of a player for the Charge in the draft via Russia, is tied with Poulin for the lead in playoff points (five), having played one fewer game than the Montreal captain.
Offence has also come from the blue line, where Jocelyne Larocque and Ronja Savolainen have combined for seven points over four games.
To win the franchise’s first Walter Cup, Ottawa will look to the underlying recipe that has brought this team back to the final for a second year in a row: resilience and relentlessness.
In Sunday’s Game 4 against Boston, when the Fleet scored three goals in less than two minutes, the Charge didn’t let the momentum swing sink them.
They pushed back, and won the series-clinching game in overtime.
“We are a very close team and we’ve got something special,” Jenner said. “If we can finish this season the way we want to, it would be an extremely memorable season.”
