The reigning Walter Cup champions. A primary-time playoff staff. Two groups who had playoff hopes dashed within the first spherical final 12 months.
These are the 4 groups vying for the Walter Cup after a chaotic remaining day of the common season.
The Ottawa Cost defeated the Toronto Sceptres in extra time to safe its first playoff berth. Quickly after, the Minnesota Frost routed the Boston Fleet 8-1 to lock down its post-season place, leaving the Fleet on the surface wanting in.
Groups three by 5 all completed with 44 factors. All of it got here right down to regulation wins as a tiebreaker.
“The parity and competitiveness in our league is second to none,” Frost head coach Ken Klee stated a day after his staff received its method in.
By advantage of ending first, the Montreal Victoire had the facility to decide on the staff’s playoff opponent, and picked Ottawa over Minnesota.
Proximity was an element, based on head coach Montreal Kori Cheverie. Little question the truth that Montreal has received 4 of six towards Ottawa this season performed a job, too.
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That leaves the second-place Toronto Sceptres to play the Minnesota Frost, in what will probably be a rematch of final 12 months’s first-round collection. Toronto constructed a 2-0 collection lead earlier than Minnesota stormed again to win the following three, and went on to win the inaugural Walter Cup remaining.
The Toronto-Minnesota collection opens on Wednesday at 7 p.m. ET, whereas the Cost will journey to Montreal for the collection opener on Thursday at 7 p.m. A Canadian staff is assured to be within the finals.
This is a preview of the best-of-five first spherical of the Walter Cup playoffs.
Toronto Sceptres (2) vs. Minnesota Frost (4)
Do not let the seeding idiot you. Minnesota is way from the underdog.
Simply ask Toronto, the staff that selected to play a fourth-place Minnesota staff within the first spherical final 12 months, solely to lose in 5 video games.
Now, the Sceptres have an opportunity to rewrite the script.
Minnesota returns the identical core of gamers who received the Walter Cup, beginning with captain Kendall Coyne Schofield and playoff MVP Taylor Heise. They make up the Frost’s high line alongside Michela Cava, a confirmed winner who can carry it within the post-season.
On the again finish, the staff is led by the most effective shutdown defenders on this planet in Lee Stecklein, and two sensible, offensive-minded blueliners in Sophie Jaques and 2024 first-round draft decide, Claire Thompson.
“She’s only a participant who’s a gamer,” Klee stated about Jaques. “She needs the puck on her stick at crucial occasions and he or she needs to go make an offensive affect on a regular basis.”
The Frost relied on each Maddie Rooney and Nicole Hensley in internet in final 12 months’s playoffs. Klee prompt the staff plans to try this once more, giving him some insurance coverage ought to one falter.
However the greatest benefit for Minnesota is that many gamers on the staff know what it takes to win, having outlasted each Toronto and Boston final 12 months.
Minnesota goes into the collection with the league’s worst regular-season penalty kill. In the meantime, Toronto has capitalized on greater than 25 per cent of its power-play alternatives.
The Sceptres enter the post-season in a distinct place than final 12 months. Toronto dominated the inaugural common season, led by league MVP, Natalie Spooner.
This time round, the Sceptres handled vital accidents. Spooner did not return from low season knee surgical procedure till February. Across the identical time, Sarah Nurse went down. Most not too long ago, Hannah Miller has been getting again on top of things after getting harm.
“The expectation is that they are in a position to carry out on the degree once they left, and it is simply not actuality,” Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan stated.
A promising signal: Spooner had two shootout targets in a latest win over the New York Sirens, whereas Nurse recorded her first purpose since March within the regular-season finale towards Ottawa.
Miller has been a do-it-all ahead for Toronto this season. Even when her offensive numbers dip, Ryan is a fan of her “trustworthy and accountable recreation.”
On the offensive aspect of issues, Toronto’s high energy play has been led by low season acquisition Daryl Watts, whose talent earned her a spot on the Canadian nationwide staff, and defender Renata Quick.
She is, in Ryan’s estimation, the most effective defender on this planet proper now. She’s additionally tough to play towards, which makes her much more of a weapon throughout the playoffs.
“When we now have her on our staff, she offers us an opportunity to win,” Ryan stated.
Rounding out Toronto’s again finish is Kristen Campbell, the reigning goaltender of the 12 months. Campbell had a tough begin, however has discovered her recreation because the season has gone on.
Montreal Victoire (1) vs. Ottawa Cost (3)
Cheverie felt her staff performed their finest three video games of the season in final 12 months’s playoffs, however fell in three straight extra time video games to Boston.
It was a tough lesson, however one each Cheverie and captain Marie-Philip Poulin weren’t desperate to dwell on.
“That was laborious final 12 months,” Poulin stated. “It’s going to be tougher this 12 months.”
Successful would require the Victoire to be relentless, gritty and constant, the captain stated.
That begins with the most effective participant on this planet and Montreal’s coronary heart and soul, Poulin. She led the league in targets total (19) and game-winning targets (six). No participant is extra clutch when it issues most. However Poulin can be a gritty participant who will not assume twice about making a success or blocking a shot.
She’s made up what may be the PWHL’s finest line this season with Laura Stacey and rookie Jennifer Gardiner. Stacey’s recreation interprets properly to the post-season, incomes breaks together with her pace and utilizing her measurement to create area. The important thing for her will probably be ending, one thing that was a problem final season towards Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel.
Past the highest line, Montreal struggled to seek out constant depth scoring because the season went on. Depth was a problem for Montreal towards Boston final 12 months, so Montreal is hoping a deeper total lineup this time round will have the ability to produce when it counts.
Drafting Cayla Barnes means much less of a load on Montreal defender Erin Ambrose this season. Add in two of the league’s high shot blockers in Mariah Keopple and Anna Wilgren, and Montreal is a tough staff to get by.
When pucks do make their option to the web, starter Ann-Renée Desbiens has been there to cease them. Between the world championship and the stretch run of the PWHL season, Desbiens has been in a position to work her method again from an damage, and completed with the highest goals-against common and save share.
“She’s a wall again there,” Poulin stated.
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The Cost enter the playoffs for the primary time lacking beginning goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer, who was injured in March. It stays unclear if she’ll be again this season.
Within the meantime, rookie Gwyneth Philips has run with the chance.
“She’s clearly a really gifted goalie as properly, however she’s simply been in a position to actually simply take the reins and settle in,” Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod stated. “She’s such a likable gal and it is fairly simple to rally round her.”
The Cost bought contributions from up and down the lineup throughout the staff’s playoff push, from captain Brianne Jenner, to tough-to-play Tereza Vanišová, to Shiann Darkangelo, who was acquired on the commerce deadline final 12 months.
But it surely was Kateřina Mrázová, again after a stint on long-term damage reserve, who scored the purpose that despatched Ottawa to the playoffs for the primary time.
And not using a star fairly like Poulin, the Cost will proceed to require assist from their full roster.
Once they’re taking part in their finest, they are often relentless. That is the staff that might want to present up towards the Victoire.
“There is a pace part,” MacLeod stated. “There is a physicality. There’s only a puck motion piece that after we know we’re on, we are able to really feel it. We really feel it on the bench and there is only a camaraderie on the bench.”
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