PWHL Playoff Primer: What you need to know about the final four teams

Shortly after the Toronto Sceptres locked up a playoff berth, they had a conversation about the 2024 post-season. The crux of it, according to head coach Troy Ryan, went like so: “It’s last year — it doesn’t matter.” 

Montreal Victoire defender Erin Ambrose says her top-seeded team is approaching the 2025 post-season in similar fashion: “Last year is what it was.” 

Short memories are key for both the Victoire and Sceptres as the PWHL playoffs open on Wednesday in Toronto, given the league’s inaugural year saw the two highest-ranked teams upset in Round 1 — the 2024 top dogs from Toronto were reverse swept by the eventual champions from Minnesota, while second-ranked Montreal lost to bottom-seeded Boston.  

So on to 2025. Montreal enters this post-season tops in the league, earning the right to select their opponent. They went for an all-Canadian, travel-friendly matchup against the third-ranked Ottawa Charge, who are making their playoff debut after a clutch OT win in their regular-season finale against Toronto. This sets up a rematch in the other semi-final, with No. 2 Toronto set to play No. 4 Minnesota, the defending Walter Cup champions. 

Attempting to call the Walter Cup winner at this point is a four-sided coin flip. Each of Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa earned 12 regulation wins in the 30-game regular season, and because of how points are awarded — three for a win, two for an OT or shootout win and one for a shootout loss — Montreal finished top of the table. Minnesota, meanwhile, had six OT wins, just one behind league-leading Montreal in that category. 

“Everyone’s almost at .500 is pretty much what it is — it’s such a close league,” says Charge defender, Jocelyne Larocque. “It is so fun to play in, because every game it’s like anyone can beat anyone.” That’s what Larocque and the Charge will be hoping to prove in their first-ever playoffs. 

Now that the table is officially set, here’s what you need to know about each team ahead of the openers of both best-of-five semifinals.   

No. 1 seed: Montreal Victoire

This team is led by “Captain Clutch”, Marie-Philip Poulin, who won the league’s Top Goal Scorer Award this season, with 19 in 30 games. The author of game-winners in three Olympic gold-medal finals also (rather unsurprisingly) had a league-leading six game-winners this season in the PWHL, and five multi-goal games. 

“Honestly, every time I’m with Poulin I find she’s better,” says Ryan, who’s coached No. 29 for more than five years at the national team level. “She gets better all the time.”

Poulin helped her team clinch the top spot with a two-goal performance against New York, which included a marker just 11 seconds into the game — the quickest in PWHL history. The 34-year-old is now the league’s all-time leading scorer through the first two seasons, with 29 goals in 51 games. 

That the Victoire paced the league in overall points and overtime wins (7) fits given who wears the ‘C,’ but Montreal’s success this season is not due only to a potent front end. The Victoire defence is led by star netminder Ann-Renée Desbiens, who earned a league-leading 15 wins this season against just two losses, and topped regular starters league-wide with a 1.86 GAA. 

Ambrose paced Montreal defenders in points with 13, tied with rookie Cayla Barnes, who’s been a key addition for the Victoire this season. “I mean, selfishly speaking, Cayla coming in has been great for me, allowing me to relax a little bit more and not feel like I have to play all the time,” Ambrose says, adding that fellow rookie Jennifer Gardiner — who starred for Canada at the last world championships — has been a big help up front. Gardiner’s 18 points ranked her third overall in team scoring, behind Poulin and Laura Stacey. 

The Victoire have no shortage of players to highlight, but Ambrose points to a forward who deserves more shine. “I think the unsung hero has been Clair Degeorge,” the defender says. “The depth that she’s added in the middle for us has been a really big thing and she’s just so sound defensively and just so trustworthy.” 

No. 3 seed: Ottawa Charge

The Charge head into the post-season riding an absolute high after Katerina Mrazova scored in overtime against Toronto to help her team to an historic first playoff berth. 

Larocque, the veteran blueliner, sees major value in the path Ottawa took to crack the post-season. It’s something she didn’t experience last year — Larocque was traded from Toronto to Ottawa in January. “You think about Boston and Minnesota last year, they had a lot of adversity going into playoffs, even just getting into playoffs, and then look, they made it to the final,” Larocque says. “I think a little bit of adversity near playoffs is a good thing.” 

The Charge are no strangers to adversity this season, and not just when it comes to squeaking into the playoffs. Back in March, starting goalie Emerance Maschmeyer was injured shortly after recording her 1,000^th career save, and the veteran Team Canada netminder was then placed on long-term injury reserve with a lower-body injury.  

The good news for Ottawa is that rookie goaltender Gwyneth Philips stepped in and absolutely took over, posting a pair of shutouts and a 2.11 GAA — third best in the league — over 15 games. Philips has absolutely thrived as a backup-turned-starter this season. The 25-year-old from Ohio is coming off helping the Americans win world championship gold after U.S. starter Aerin Frankel was injured in the final game. Philips came in cold during the third period, making 17 saves on 18 shots to force overtime, where she made another 10 stops for the win. 

The Charge are led offensively by Czech star Tereza Vanisova (22 points) and Emily Clark (19 points), and they’re approaching these playoffs with the same mentality that got them in. Head coach Carla MacLeod has been telling her players that pressure is what they make of it. “It’s not this crazy act of heroism,” Larocque explains. “It’s us playing our game.” 

The last two times the Charge and Victoire met, Ottawa played their game and won both in regulation. 

Montreal-Ottawa schedule (Games 4 and 5 if necessary; all times ET)

Game 1: Thursday May 8, 7 p.m. in Montreal 
Game 2: Sunday May 11, 2 p.m. in Montreal 
Game 3: Tuesday May 13, 7 p.m. in Ottawa
Game 4: Friday May 16, 7 p.m. in Ottawa 
Game 5: Sunday May 18, 7p.m. in Montreal 

No. 2 seed: Toronto Sceptres

The Sceptres spent most of the season without a star forward in the lineup. First, it was reigning league MVP and top scorer Natalie Spooner, shelved while rehabilitating a knee injury suffered in the first-round of last year’s playoffs. Spooner missed the first 16 games of the regular season. Not long before she returned to the Sceptres lineup, Toronto lost Sarah Nurse, who was injured during a February Rivalry Series game. 

It wasn’t until the end of March that both players were back in the lineup together, and Spooner hasn’t returned to her explosive self just yet as she continues to work on regaining her strength. After scoring more than a point per game last season, the reigning MVP has five points in her last 12 games. 

Sceptres veteran defender Renata Fast says her team is now well versed in being without some of its most potent scorers, and the result is a stronger core. “It forces you as a team to dig in a little bit more. And so, when you finally do get your healthy roster, everyone’s feeling pretty good because you get that extra boost when they’re back, but everyone’s put in the work prior to them being there to have success,” says Fast, whose 22 points in the regular season paced all blueliners. 

Daryl Watts enters these playoffs as the most productive player in the regular season after leading Toronto with 27 points — good for second overall in the PWHL, behind co-leaders Hilary Knight and Sarah Fillier (Knight’s Boston Fleet and Fillier’s New York Sirens didn’t qualify for the post-season). Watts saw an uptick in points per game season over season, from 0.7 in 2024 to 0.9 this year. Hannah Miller was second on the club with 24 points. 

Toronto struggled early as players adapted to roster changes and absences, getting out to a 2-7 start before finding their footing. “That’s the way I’d have wanted it — if you’re going to have a little bit of a lull in a season, it’s the beginning where you work through things and everyone’s starting to find their roles and how they can impact the game,” Fast says. “This team’s going to continue to elevate.” 

No. 4 seed: Minnesota Frost

The defending Walter Cup champions from the State of Hockey scraped their way into the post-season, clinching their spot after a win in their regular-season finale. But that has to feel familiar in a good way for a team that scraped in last year, too, en route to the title. Frost players just received their championship rings and no doubt are eyeing a repeat. 

They’re led by captain Kendall Coyne Schofield, who’s a key reason why this league exists, and who poetically was the first player to hoist the Walter Cup last season. Coyne led the Frost in Year 2 with 24 points, followed by 2024 first-overall pick Taylor Heise (22), who won the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award last season after leading the post-season in goals, and defender Sophie Jaques (22). 

Thunder Bay, Ont., native Michela Cava had another solid season, with 19 points in 30 games, and as she demonstrated last season, Cava is a big-game player. She put up nearly a point per game in the post-season, tying with Heise for the post-season lead with eight. 

Minnesota boasts the most depth between the pipes, with the tandem of Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley. Rooney saw the most action in the regular season, posting two shut outs in 19 starts with a second-best league-wide GAA of 2.07. Hensley had 11 starts and picked up wins in her last three. That included allowing just one goal in the Frost’s regular-season finale, which they had to win to advance, and posting a shutout in the second last game of the season.

There are now a maximum of 10 games ahead for all four teams, and Minnesota is the only team that has been through that full experience en route to the inaugural title. It isn’t easy, if you ask the Frost captain.   

“I think, when I look back and I think back to last year, it’s just how hard it is to win a five-game series, and to do it twice,” Coyne Schofield told reporters on a PWHL conference call earlier this week. “I think for me that was unique in itself, but as coach [Ken Klee] mentioned, we can’t look past Game 1, and it’s gonna be an exciting atmosphere and electric atmosphere — and we’re looking forward to it.” 

Toronto-Minnesota schedule (Games 4 and 5 if necessary; all times local)

Game 1: Wednesday May 7, 7 p.m. in Toronto 
Game 2: Friday May 9, 7 p.m. in Toronto 
Game 3: Sunday May 11, 5 p.m. in Saint Paul 
Game 4: Wednesday May 14, 6 p.m. in Saint Paul 
Game 5: Saturday May 17, time TBD in Toronto