OTTAWA, ON– The Ottawa Charge clinched their spot in the PWHL Finals with a 2-1 win against the Montréal Victoire on Friday night in front of a roaring crowd of 8,011 at TD Place, winning the best-of-five semifinal series 3-1.
Ottawa native Rebecca Leslie put the Charge on the board early, burying a rebound off a two-on-one shot from Anna Meixner just two minutes into the game. The score remained 1-0 through the end of the second period, before Emily Clark doubled Ottawa’s lead just 31 seconds into the third period.
Now needing at least two goals to keep their season alive, the Victoire continued to apply pressure in the third period, and Maureen Murphy eventually found the back of the net with five minutes left in the game to cut Montréal’s deficit in half. While the Victoire pushed to tie the game with a sixth attacker on the ice, Ottawa netminder Gwyneth Philips stood tall, finishing the game with 19 saves to backstop Ottawa to their first-ever PWHL Finals berth.
Montréal goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped 21 of 23 shots in her seventh career playoff start.
The Charge will face off against the Minnesota Frost in the PWHL Finals, presented by Scotiabank, as the Frost look to defend their Walter Cup title. Game 1 will take place on Tuesday at TD Place.
QUOTES
Ottawa Head Coach Carla MacLeod on getting the series win: “It’s a great moment. From my vantage and for our players, I think as you watch them grow throughout the season and we watched sort of how we’ve approached this playoff— and it being our first playoffs— they wear their heart on their sleeve, and I think you could see it. And then I stand on the ice after the game, and I kind of forget that there’s so many fans behind our bench. And those players are really lucky because it’s quite an advantage to be able to see the support in this journey that we have, trying to win a Walter Cup.”
Forward Rebecca Leslie on the turning point of the Charge’s season: “From day one, we’ve had belief in our group. I think that in a season, you’re going to have ups and downs. You look at this league, the top two teams are out right now. So, every game is important, and you can’t win them all. But for us, we just believe, and we’ve been playing playoff hockey for the second half of our season. So, I guess there wasn’t a moment, but I think that we just knew that if we kept pushing, we could be in this position.”
Montréal defender Erin Ambrose on the difference between losing a PWHL series and on the international scene: “I think it’s hard right now in the moment. After we lost game one, it was like -okay, you don’t win or lose the series in game one. And obviously we had a huge bounce back in quadruple OT, and that was massive for us. But I think at the moment, right now, it still hurts just as much, if not more. I’ve always said that internationally is great. It’s obviously a privilege to play there, but to be on this team with this group, day in and day out, with this group of people and the phenomenal people that they are, it makes it really disappointing that we couldn’t get the job done–– and that’s staff included. Our staff does everything under the sun to prepare us, to get us in situations. And I think the hardest thing is knowing that this group will never be back together.”
Victoire Head Coach Kori Cheverie: “Obviously we made a really good push till the end there, and we just couldn’t seem to find a way to get that little black rubber thing across the line. We just couldn’t score. We tried to do what was best for the group. Kudos to Ottawa for the series that they put forward.”
NOTABLES
Gwyneth Philips leads all goaltenders with a 1.14 goals-against average and a .956 save percentage through the first round of the PWHL Playoffs. She was also the only goalie to record a shutout.
Ann-Renée Desbiens finished the series with the most saves (132) and was second among all goaltenders in goal-against-average (1.55) and save percentage (.943). Games 3 and 4 marked the first time all season that Desbiens lost back-to-back starts.
The Charge’s eight goals in the series were scored by seven different players, with captain Brianne Jenner being the only one to find the back of the net twice.
Ten players recorded multiple points in the series (MTL – 5, OTT – 5), with only Jenner and Maureen Murphy (MTL) scoring multiple goals (2). By contrast, the Minnesota–Toronto series featured 25 players with multiple points (MIN – 13, TOR – 12), including seven players who scored multiple goals.
The Charge scored on their first power play of the series but were held without a goal on their final six opportunities. Montréal went 2-for-2 on the power play in Game 1 but failed to convert on their next seven chances across Games 2 to 4. In total, both teams combined to kill off the final 12 power plays of the series.
The Victoire went winless in all 11 games this season when held scoreless through two periods—including Games 3 and 4 of this series.
Rebecca Leslie scored her first goal of the playoffs, matching her regular-season total through 27 games and equaling her output from five playoff games last year with Toronto. The goal also marked her first even-strength tally of the season, having previously scored shorthanded on Mar. 25 against the Sirens.
Anna Meixner recorded her first career playoff point with an assist—her second of the season and her second in the last seven games—after going without an assist in her first 25 games to start the year. With the assist, Meixner became the 13th different Charge player to record a point in the series, compared to just 10 players for Montréal.
Emily Clark scored her first career playoff goal, snapping an eight-game goal drought dating back to the regular season. The tally stood as the game-winner—her third game-winner of the season and first since Feb. 22, also against Montreal. The goal, scored 31 seconds into the frame, is the fastest goal to start any period in PWHL Playoff history. Clark finished the series with three points (1G, 2A).
Gabbie Hughes recorded an assist for the second straight game and was the only player to record points in both Game 3 and Game 4.
Murphy scored her second goal of the series, giving her three career playoff goals in seven career games. The Victoire forward had three goals in 28 regular-season games this season and has eight goals in 52 career regular-season appearances.
Marie-Philip Poulin recorded her first assist of the postseason, bringing her to two points (1G, 1A) in four games—matching her playoff total from last year in three games. Across both the regular season and playoffs this year, the Victoire captain did not go more than two consecutive games without recording a point.
Jennifer Gardiner recorded her third assist of the postseason, tying her for the rookie lead in postseason scoring.
Clair DeGeorge made her first appearance of this year’s playoffs, inserted into the Victoire lineup in place of forward Claire Dalton.
Ottawa opened the scoring in three of four games this series and remained perfect when scoring first, with a 3-0 playoff record in such games. During the regular season, they scored first in 18 of 30 games—tied with Minnesota for the league lead—but had the second lowest win percentage when doing so, going 10-1-3-4 (.648).
Ottawa’s goal at 2:00 of the first period was the fastest of the 2025 postseason and the second-fastest in PWHL playoff history—trailing only Minnesota’s goal 59 seconds into Game 3 of last year’s Final. It also stands as the second-fastest goal the Charge have scored this season, behind a tally 45 seconds into their April 2 matchup against Boston.
The Victoire led the PWHL with 32 second-period goals during the regular season but managed just two in this series. Tonight’s goal also marked Montréal’s first third-period goal of the series, after finishing the regular season with a league-low 18 goals in the final frame.
All four games of this series were decided by one-goal. Montréal played in a league-high 22 one-goal games across the entire season, winning 13. Ottawa has played in 20 one-goal games and has won 12 of them.
SCORESHEET RECAP
1st Period-1, Ottawa, Leslie 1 (Meixner), 2:00. Penalties-No Penalties.
2nd Period- No Scoring. Penalties-O’Neill Mtl (tripping), 4:05; Clark Ott (tripping), 14:34.
3rd Period-2, Ottawa, Clark 1 (Hughes), 0:31. 3, Montréal, Murphy 2 (Gardiner, Poulin), 14:58. Penalties-served by Dubois Mtl (delay of game), 0:31.
Shots on Goal-Montréal 7-8-5-20. Ottawa 6-10-7-23.
Power Play Opportunities-Montréal 0 / 1; Ottawa 0 / 2.
Goalies-Montréal, Desbiens (23 shots-21 saves). Ottawa, Philips (20 shots-19 saves).
A-8,011
THREE STARS
1. Gwyneth Philips (OTT) 19/20 SV
2. Ashton Bell (OTT)
3. Rebecca Leslie (OTT) 1G
SERIES
Ottawa wins the series 3-1 over Montréal
UPCOMING SCHEDULE
Ottawa: Game 1 of the PWHL Finals vs Minnesota on Tuesday, May 20 at 7 p.m. ET (TD Place)
