Marie-Philip Poulin has done it again, and this time her game-winning goal sets up a historic all-Canadian PWHL final with the Walter Cup on the line.
As Montreal Victoire goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens put it, a day after their team eliminated the two-time defending champions from Minnesota thanks to some monster saves and the third period power-play marker from Poulin that stood up as the winner: “She is Captain Clutch — the one and only one.”
Now, Montreal is off to the Walter Cup Final, where they’ll go head-to-head with Ottawa for the coveted championship.
The Charge have been awaiting their opponent since they dusted Boston in four games. Though really, you can go even further back, since they made the final last season — the first Canadian team to do so — and lost out to Minnesota.
History now awaits the first Canadian team ever to win the Walter Cup, which will be handed out for the third time later this month —the first time it will go to a team that isn’t the Minnesota Frost. But which Canadian team will it be?
Montreal is the first-ever top seed to win a playoff series, while fourth-ranked Ottawa continued the trend of post-season PWHL upsets by eliminating the second-seeded Fleet.
Montreal won three of four meetings against Ottawa in the regular season, and the Charge’s win came in overtime. Playoffs, though, are a different animal altogether. Ahead of the opener on Thursday at Place Bell in Laval, Que., here’s a look at some of the key storylines for the best-of-five series.
GOALIE CLINIC AWAITS
Charge goaltender Gwyneth Philips was so good in the Walter Cup Final last season that despite her team losing in four games — all of which went to extra time — she was named playoff MVP. This year in the post-season, no goalie has done better than Philips’ sparkling .951 save percentage.
At the other end of the ice is none other than Desbiens, the veteran Team Canada goaltender who led the regular season with her 1.11 GAA, and who posted a shutout against a potent Minnesota offence to help lead her team to the Final.
In Tuesday’s semi-final clincher, Desbiens made a jaw-dropping sprawling kick pad save, and also stopped a puck that was rolling behind her — it got all the way to the goal line before she calmly swept it back to safety to make the save.
POULIN'S (AND MONTREAL'S) HEALTH
Game 5 of the Montreal-Minnesota semi-final series was delayed one day because of illness, and according to reports, the sickness hit a handful of Montreal players. The league still hasn’t released the details, but no doubt Wednesday’s off-day was much-needed for the Victoire before they take the ice again at Place Bell.
The thing is, whatever health issues they were dealing with didn’t seem to rattle Montreal too much. They got the biggest win in franchise history.
And the same goes for their captain: Poulin seemingly can’t be rattled, either. She’s playing hurt, with a right knee that’s far from 100 per cent. It’s the same one she hurt at the Olympics and that kept her out for 10 games late in the regular season.
Even on one leg, and with less than her usual ice time, Poulin is still doing what she does best: No. 29 chipped in on every goal scored in Game 5 against the Frost. She scored the game-winner in two of the Victoire’s semi-final victories, and the big one Tuesday came on the power-play from a bad angle. Poulin still managed to pick the corner.
“I give her a ton of credit and I respect her so much for what she’s doing for our group right now,” said Victoire head coach, Kori Cheverie. “I know that she wants to be at her best and at the top of her game at all times, and that’s just not always possible given the circumstances. ... She had a couple huge blocked shots [Tuesday] night. She’s just willing to put her body on the line. You don’t see a player that skilled who can do those types of things also willing to put her body on the line to win a hockey game. That is the most important thing to her right now, is winning.”
THE HOME AND CLOSE-TO-HOME EFFECT
No team won more at home in the regular season than the Victoire, who went 11-1 at Place Bell. They’re 2-1 at home in the playoffs and, in a five-game series that swings to Ottawa for Nos. 3 and 4, getting off to a decisive two-game lead at home would be absolutely huge.
But Montreal’s also up against a Charge team that fares well playing in the capital, and Ottawa is a perfect 2-0 at the Canadian Tire Centre during the post-season.
Does this Final have the ingredients to go a full five? It sure looks like it.
That’s a good thing for hockey fans, because it’ll be a hard-fought series between a pair of teams that are located just less than three hours apart by car. “There’s a good rivalry between our two fan bases with how close we are, so just really exciting — and we’re looking forward to puck drop [Thursday],” said Charge captain Brianne Jenner.
CAVA CATCHES FIRE
The Charge have gotten big goals from a wide cast of players already this post-season, including flashy forward Fanuza Kadirova and veteran defender Jocelyne Larocque.
But a very encouraging sign for Ottawa occurred in Game 4, when proven playoff performer Michela Cava — a two-time Walter Cup champion who co-led Minnesota with eight playoff points en route to their first title — got her first goal of this post-season run. And it was huge: the double-OT game-winner that sent Ottawa to the Final.
The fourth-seeded Charge have 10 post-season goals, which is on-pace with Montreal, and they’ll need to continue to find scoring wherever they can in an attempt to solve Desbiens. Cava heating up just before the Final should no doubt help.
MORE HISTORY ON THE WAY
This won’t just be the first time a Canadian team wins the PWHL title, it’ll also be the first time a female coach leads her team to the league’s championship — and she’ll be a Canadian: Cheverie is from Nova Scotia and Charge coach Carla MacLeod is from Alberta.
Both women represented their country on the ice, and one of them will soon be hoisting the Walter Cup over her head.
If it happens this season for MacLeod, it’ll come just months after the 43-year-old was diagnosed with breast cancer this past November. She took some time away from the team to receive treatment, including a handful of games at the end of the season, but returned to watch her Charge clinch a playoff berth with tears in her eyes. MacLeod has been on the bench ever since.
The 2010 Olympic gold medallist has made sure to take on important work since her diagnosis, standing on “a soapbox,” as she puts it, to advocate for women’s health.
“We’ve been told what our health is through male-driven science,” MacLeod told Sportsnet in an interview earlier this season. “And I think we’re late to the party, but we’re finally getting to the party because it’s hogwash to think a 30-year-old shouldn’t have a mammogram.”
MacLeod has received incredible support league-wide this season, with fans and players from all markets speaking out in support as she fights cancer. Capping such an emotional season with a Walter Cup title would be true fairytale stuff, sports fans.