In 2024, it was a Boston Fleet team with a deeper bottom six that foiled the Montreal Victoire in the first round of the inaugural PWHL playoffs.
Last year, it was the underdog Ottawa Charge, led by star goaltender Gwyneth Philips, that shut down the Victoire’s stars in round one.
But there’s reason to believe this year could be different for the Victoire, and the proof is in Montreal’s regular season. The Victoire will open its Walter Cup semifinal series against the Minnesota Frost on Saturday inside Laval’s Place Bell. The game begins at 2 p.m. ET.
In 2024, one-third of Montreal’s regular-season goals came from captain Marie-Philip Poulin or alternate captain Laura Stacey.
That number climbed closer to 40 per cent last season. Shut down the top line and you were likely to eliminate most of Montreal’s offence.
With the captain sidelined for a chunk of time after the Olympic break, the offence couldn’t flow through Poulin. Only 20 per cent of the Victoire’s goals this past season came from Poulin or Stacey, as head coach Kori Cheverie mixed and matched her roster to find the best combinations.
The Montreal Victoire finished 1st in the 2026 PWHL regular season and will face the 3rd-seeded Minnesota Frost on Saturday. Here are some of the reasons why the Montreal team could be the one waving the trophy in the air when it’s all said and done.
“The way that we organize our lines is always looking at who fits well together, who works well together, and who are the complementary pieces that we can add to each line,” Cheverie told reporters ahead of Saturday’s game. “Right now, everybody can play in playoffs. Everybody has the ability to play. That’s the amazing thing about our depth.”
The offence came from Abby Roque (22 points in 29 games), who was added in an offseason trade, and from free agent addition, Hayley Scamurra (16 points in 30 games), who Cheverie moved to centre this season. It also came through the draft from players like first-round pick, Nicole Gosling (19 points in 30 games), who stepped up following an injury to top defender, Erin Ambrose.
What’s even more impressive is that Montreal lost its third, fourth and fifth top scorers, behind Poulin and Stacey, to expansion teams.
Despite that, Montreal came into this season a better team.
On top of added depth, Montreal starting goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens is playing at “another level” this season, Cheverie said. Desbiens posted a 1.11 goals against average through 25 regular-season games.
No matter how high the stakes get, Desbiens is known for staying calm, cool and collected.
“You can play a little looser knowing that you have that extra wall behind you that is going to shut pretty much everything down,” Victoire defender Maggie Flaherty said.
Montreal will face a Minnesota Frost team built on high-octane offence. The Frost led the league in goals scored (91) this season, 13 more than Montreal, which was the second-highest scoring team.
It’s worth noting that only three of those goals were scored against the Victoire, over four games head-to-head this regular season.
For Montreal, which selected the Frost over the Ottawa Charge, the match-up is a bet on the Victoire’s defence and goaltending being stronger.
“They like to drive the net, they like to go around the outside, cut to the middle,” Scamurra said. “As long as we make it hard on them to do the things that they like to do, they’re going to get frustrated, and we’ve got to just keep wearing them down.”
Eldridge powers Boston in Game 1
In a game with plenty of penalties, it was two even-strength goals that secured a 2-1 Game 1 win for the Boston Fleet over the Ottawa Charge on Thursday.
“I like that we stuck with it,” Boston head coach Kris Sparre said after the game. “We had some good opportunities early in the game. It didn’t go for us. But that’s why we talk a lot during the season about big moments and staying composed because the higher the stakes, we’re going to need that.”
The Boston Fleet lead the semi-final playoff series after defeating the Ottawa Charge 2-1 on Thursday. The CBC’s Emma Weller was at the Tsongas Center in Lowell, Massachusetts.
On both goals, it was Jessie Eldridge evading pressure to get the puck to the middle of the ice, where her teammates cashed in. She earned two primary assists in her playoff debut.
Eldridge has been a perfect fit in the Fleet since coming over in a trade from the Seattle Torrent in March. She’s developed chemistry alongside Alina Müller, who scored the opening goal for the Fleet on Thursday. That allows the Fleet to roll out another line built around Susanna Tapani’s shot.
The goal in trading for Eldridge was to bring in more offence. Mission complete there. But her defensive game often flies under the radar.
“You see her on the forecheck, she’s physical, she’s got a good stick,” Sparre said earlier this week. “She tracks back hard. She plays a great defensive game. There’s a lot of intangibles to Jessie Eldridge’s game that maybe she doesn’t get a lot of credit for.”
The Fleet outshot the Charge, 28-18, and were able to get more quality chances on Ottawa goaltender, Gwyneth Philips.
Meanwhile, the Charge were kept more to the perimeter of the ice, save for a power play goal from Jocelyne Larocque in the first period. Ottawa’s power play finished the night one for six.
Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod said her team would make some minor tweaks ahead of Saturday’s Game 2, which is set for 7 p.m. in Lowell, Mass. But the coach liked her team’s looks on the power play.
“You don’t get to this point of the season and start making major adjustments,” MacLeod said. “Our game is in a really great spot. That’s why we’re here.”
Awaiting expansion news
While the Walter Cup playoffs get underway, players across the league continue to wait for news on potential expansion and how it could affect where they’re playing next season.
A significant chunk of players in the league are on expiring contracts, but it’s not yet clear how the league could deal with that should it add more teams.
New York Sirens GM Pascal Daoust said on Thursday that general managers have seen several scenarios of how things could work. But with the number of new teams and potential markets still being finalized, Daoust said it was too early for his team to make a plan on how to tackle the offseason.
Sirens captain Micah Zandee-Hart said much of the league is trying to focus on the task at hand with the playoffs starting.
“They figured out the process last year and it worked out, so I’m hoping to kind of see that happen once again,” Zandee-Hart, who represents the Sirens with the PWHL Players Association, said. “Hopefully we’ll get more details soon because it’s coming down to that time pretty quick here.”
Listen in to the best on-ice moments from the 2025-26 PWHL season.
The Sirens missed the playoffs for a third consecutive season. But it felt different this year, Zandee-Hart said.
New York made strides with a young core built around top draft picks from 2024 and 2025, including Sarah Fillier, Casey O’Brien and Kristýna Kaltounková.
Whether the team will look similar or drastically different next season is up in the air, but Zandee-Hart feels the team is continuing to grow.
“Despite not making the playoffs, there’s definitely hope that we’re building something that we’re proud of and we’re going to continue to build on that,” the captain said.
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