The reigning Walter Cup champions. A first-time playoff team. Two teams who had playoff hopes dashed in the first round last year.
Those are the four teams vying for the Walter Cup after a chaotic final day of the regular season.
The Ottawa Charge defeated the Toronto Sceptres in overtime to secure its first playoff berth. Soon after, the Minnesota Frost routed the Boston Fleet 8-1 to lock down its post-season position, leaving the Fleet on the outside looking in.
Teams three through five all finished with 44 points. It all came down to regulation wins as a tiebreaker.
“The parity and competitiveness in our league is second to none,” Frost head coach Ken Klee said a day after his team won its way in.
By virtue of finishing first, the Montreal Victoire had the power to choose the team’s playoff opponent, and picked Ottawa over Minnesota.
Proximity was a factor, according to head coach Montreal Kori Cheverie. No doubt the fact that Montreal has won four of six against Ottawa this season played a role, too.
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That leaves the second-place Toronto Sceptres to play the Minnesota Frost, in what will be a rematch of last year’s first-round series. Toronto built a 2-0 series lead before Minnesota stormed back to win the next three, and went on to win the inaugural Walter Cup final.
The Toronto-Minnesota series opens on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, while the Charge will travel to Montreal for the series opener on Thursday at 7 p.m. A Canadian team is guaranteed to be in the finals.
Here’s a preview of the best-of-five first round of the Walter Cup playoffs.
Toronto Sceptres (2) vs. Minnesota Frost (4)
Don’t let the seeding fool you. Minnesota is far from the underdog.
Just ask Toronto, the team that chose to play a fourth-place Minnesota team in the first round last year, only to lose in five games.
Now, the Sceptres have a chance to rewrite the script.
Minnesota returns the same core of players who won the Walter Cup, starting with captain Kendall Coyne Schofield and playoff MVP Taylor Heise. They make up the Frost’s top line alongside Michela Cava, a proven winner who can bring it in the post-season.
On the back end, the team is led by one of the best shutdown defenders in the world in Lee Stecklein, and two smart, offensive-minded blueliners in Sophie Jaques and 2024 first-round draft pick, Claire Thompson.
“She’s just a player who’s a gamer,” Klee said about Jaques. “She wants the puck on her stick at critical times and she wants to go make an offensive impact all the time.”
The Frost relied on both Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley in net in last year’s playoffs. Klee suggested the team plans to do that again, giving him some insurance should one falter.
But the biggest advantage for Minnesota is that many players on the team know what it takes to win, having outlasted both Toronto and Boston last year.
Minnesota goes into the series with the league’s worst regular-season penalty kill. Meanwhile, Toronto has capitalized on more than 25 per cent of its power-play opportunities.
The Sceptres enter the post-season in a different position than last year. Toronto dominated the inaugural regular season, led by league MVP, Natalie Spooner.
This time around, the Sceptres dealt with significant injuries. Spooner didn’t return from off-season knee surgery until February. Around the same time, Sarah Nurse went down. Most recently, Hannah Miller has been getting back up to speed after getting hurt.
“The expectation is that they’re able to perform at the level when they left, and it’s just not reality,” Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan said.
A promising sign: Spooner had two shootout goals in a recent win over the New York Sirens, while Nurse recorded her first goal since March in the regular-season finale against Ottawa.
Miller has been a do-it-all forward for Toronto this season. Even if her offensive numbers dip, Ryan is a fan of her “honest and responsible game.”
On the offensive side of things, Toronto’s top power play has been led by off-season acquisition Daryl Watts, whose skill earned her a spot on the Canadian national team, and defender Renata Fast.
She is, in Ryan’s estimation, the best defender in the world right now. She’s also difficult to play against, which makes her even more of a weapon during the playoffs.
“When we have her on our team, she gives us a chance to win,” Ryan said.
Rounding out Toronto’s back end is Kristen Campbell, the reigning goaltender of the year. Campbell had a difficult start, but has found her game as the season has gone on.
Montreal Victoire (1) vs. Ottawa Charge (3)
Cheverie felt her team played their best three games of the season in last year’s playoffs, but fell in three straight overtime games to Boston.
It was a hard lesson, but one both Cheverie and captain Marie-Philip Poulin weren’t eager to dwell on.
“That was hard last year,” Poulin said. “It’ll be harder this year.”
Winning will require the Victoire to be relentless, gritty and consistent, the captain said.
That starts with the best player in the world and Montreal’s heart and soul, Poulin. She led the league in goals overall (19) and game-winning goals (six). No player is more clutch when it matters most. But Poulin is also a gritty player who won’t think twice about making a hit or blocking a shot.
She’s made up what might be the PWHL’s best line this season with Laura Stacey and rookie Jennifer Gardiner. Stacey’s game translates well to the post-season, earning breaks with her speed and using her size to create space. The key for her will be finishing, something that was a challenge last season against Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel.
Beyond the top line, Montreal struggled to find consistent depth scoring as the season went on. Depth was an issue for Montreal against Boston last year, so Montreal is hoping a deeper overall lineup this time around will be able to produce when it counts.
Drafting Cayla Barnes means less of a load on Montreal defender Erin Ambrose this season. Add in two of the league’s top shot blockers in Mariah Keopple and Anna Wilgren, and Montreal is a hard team to get by.
When pucks do make their way to the net, starter Ann-Renée Desbiens has been there to stop them. Between the world championship and the stretch run of the PWHL season, Desbiens has been able to work her way back from an injury, and finished with the top goals-against average and save percentage.
“She’s a wall back there,” Poulin said.
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The Charge enter the playoffs for the first time missing starting goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, who was injured in March. It remains unclear if she’ll be back this season.
In the meantime, rookie Gwyneth Philips has run with the opportunity.
“She’s obviously a very talented goalie as well, but she’s just been able to really just take the reins and settle in,” Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod said. “She’s such a likable gal and it’s pretty easy to rally around her.”
The Charge got contributions from up and down the lineup during the team’s playoff push, from captain Brianne Jenner, to tough-to-play Tereza Vanišová, to Shiann Darkangelo, who was acquired at the trade deadline last year.
But it was Kateřina Mrázová, back after a stint on long-term injury reserve, who scored the goal that sent Ottawa to the playoffs for the first time.
Without a star quite like Poulin, the Charge will continue to require support from their full roster.
When they’re playing their best, they can be relentless. That’s the team that will need to show up against the Victoire.
“There’s a speed component,” MacLeod said. “There’s a physicality. There’s just a puck movement piece that when we know we’re on, we can feel it. We feel it on the bench and there’s just a camaraderie on the bench.”
