2025 PWHL Finals preview: Ottawa Charge and Minnesota Frost battle for Walter Cup
OTTAWA – The Minnesota Frost are back in the PWHL Finals after winning the league's inaugural Walter Cup last season.
The odds, according to Dom Luszczyszyn, say they're the favorites against the Ottawa Charge.
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Could the Frost win back-to-back Walter Cup championships? Or will the Charge win in their first playoff appearance?
If you're still looking for reasons to get behind either Minnesota or Ottawa before the PWHL Finals begin on Tuesday, here are three reasons why each team could win the 2025 Walter Cup.
Three reasons Ottawa will win
1. A surging Gwyneth Philips
Ottawa's semifinals series against the Montreal Victoire was a battle of the goaltenders. And Philips came out on top.
The rookie netminder has been dialed in since taking on Ottawa's starting role with Emerance Maschmeyer on long-term injured reserve. She won four of the final five games down the stretch of the regular season and has been the best goalie of the postseason with a league-leading 1.14 goals against average and .956 save percentage. Only Montreal's Ann-Renée Desbiens (132) has made more saves in the postseason than Philips (129).
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'She's been phenomenal,' said captain Brianne Jenner on Saturday. 'It's great to see her come in and play the way she's playing. We have so much confidence playing in front of her. And I think when you try to go on a run like this, it takes depth, it takes players stepping up in crucial moments, and Gwyn has done that since she entered the net.'
It's fair to wonder whether playing against Minnesota — with the most potent offense in the PWHL — might change things for Philips. The Frost scored 18 goals in the first round against the Toronto Sceptres, a marked difference from Montreal's six against the Charge. Minnesota also beat the Boston Fleet 8-1 in its final game of the season.
But none of those last five games have been against a goalie who is clicking quite like Philips heading into Game 1. In the regular-season finale, Minnesota faced Aerin Frankel, one of the very best goalies in the world, who was playing her first game after an injury that took her out of the Women's World Championship gold medal game. Against Toronto, the Frost were shooting on Kristen Campbell, who appeared to lose a step once the postseason began with a league-worst .813 save percentage.
Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod told media on Saturday that when Philips is at her best, like she appears to be now, she's 'rising to those (big) moments and really embracing them.'
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'Her tracking and her fight on every puck, every rebound,' she added. 'She just doesn't give up on a play until there's a whistle.'
On the other side of the ice, Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney make a solid tandem for Minnesota, but they have been inconsistent at times this season. Against Toronto, Rooney allowed eight goals against in two games (both wins). Hensley allowed six goals.
Something worth keeping an eye on: Philips has played more than double the amount of minutes (314) as Rooney (120) or Hensley (134). Without Maschmeyer, Ottawa does not have the benefit of rolling out a tandem. Still, Philips has been significantly better between the pipes thus far.
2. Strong defensive structure
While Philips has (rightfully) gotten a ton of the credit for Ottawa's upset against Montreal, the team's defense should probably get a share of the spotlight.
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Since coming back from the women's worlds break on April 26, Ottawa has given up just 12 goals in seven games (1.71 goals per game), the fewest in the league over that final stretch of the regular season and into playoffs. In the semifinals, it was a combination of Philips' strong play and heavy shutdown minutes by Ottawa's top line (Gabbie Hughes, Emily Clark and Mannon McMahon) and top defense pair (Jocelyne Larocque and Ashton Bell) that was able to shut down Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin.
MacLeod would argue that it was the team's collective attention to detail on the defensive side of the puck that gave them so much success.
'It's minuscule details when it comes to defending,' she said. 'But when you execute them, they have high impact.'
In four games – or 15+ periods of hockey, largely thanks to the quadruple-overtime Game 2 – Montreal only had 45 high-danger chances, or just three per period of play. That kind of stingy defense could really help against Minnesota.
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And beyond just the defensive details, Ottawa plays a fast and physical style, which bodes well for playoff hockey. Larocque specifically played Poulin hard, but made smart plays to get the puck quickly out of Ottawa's zone. She and Bell will be critical against Minnesota's top line of Taylor Heise, Kendall Coyne Schofield and Michela Cava. Having home ice advantage could be huge for Ottawa to get its top shutdown players against Minnesota's biggest stars.
But the difference between Minnesota and Montreal is that the Frost have more than just one line that can score (more on that later). That's where Ottawa's overall structure and depth on the blue line will come in, with players like Zoe Boyd, Aneta Tejralová and Ronja Savolainen already showing they can step up in the postseason.
3. Scoring depth
To no real fault of the organization, Ottawa isn't a market that has been able to attract the same big-ticket free agents as other Canadian teams. Sarah Nurse, Renata Fast and Daryl Watts are all from Toronto and wanted to play for the Sceptres. Poulin and Desbiens are from Quebec, which made Montreal a natural fit.
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That meant Ottawa has largely been built around several good-to-great players, rather than a handful of local superstars surrounded by a supporting cast. Considering the Charge are in the Finals, that method has worked out pretty well.
Ottawa isn't as top-heavy as, say, Montreal, with offense spread out across the lineup. The hope for the Charge is that their lines will come in waves with speed and an in-your-face style that can knock the Frost off their game.
And on any given night, Ottawa has options on who might step up and be the star. In Game 1 against Montreal, Shiann Darkangelo, Boston's pick at No. 70 in the inaugural 2023 draft, scored the game-winner. In Game 3, McMahon scored the lone goal to win 1-0 and take a 2-1 series lead back to Ottawa. In Game 4, Ottawa native Rebecca Leslie, who scored one goal all regular season, opened the scoring just two minutes into the game.
Not to mention, with reasons No. 1 and 2 in mind, Ottawa seems comfortable winning games 2-1.
Three reasons Minnesota will win
1. Tremendous star power
Having a deep team is great, but so is having depth legitimate star power. And Minnesota definitely checks both boxes.
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Its top line is one of the very best in the league with Heise, Cava and Coyne Schofield combining for six goals and 16 points in the first round and all sitting top-five in PWHL playoff scoring. Cava is a big-time playoff performer and has been since she played for the Toronto Six in the now-defunct Premier Hockey Federation. Heise could very well win back-to-back playoff MVP awards. And Coyne Schofield consistently sparked Minnesota's offense against Toronto, especially with a two-goal performance in Game 4.
'She possesses a unique talent and a unique skill set,' said Minnesota coach Ken Klee. 'For us, she was our MVP this year. She brought her speed and competitiveness which basically raised our whole group around her.'
The Frost also have three legitimate No. 1 defenders in Lee Stecklein, Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson spread across the top four. And a second-line center in Kelly Pannek who was among the top scorers for Team USA at women's worlds in April. a third line built around 2024 first-round pick Britta Curl-Salemme, who was third in rookie scoring this season. Her linemate Brooke McQuigge was fourth.
Minnesota's fourth line – Katy Knoll, Liz Schepers and Klára Hymlárová – is a pain to play against and contributed two goals in the semifinals. Schepers, if you recall, scored the title-clinching goal last year against Boston.
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No team has scored more goals in the playoffs than Minnesota (18), with 11 different players finding the back of the net.
'We have a team that is built for a series,' said Klee. 'And built to go far.'
2. Offense from the blue line
Minnesota's top line takes up three of the top five spots in PWHL playoff scoring. The other two? Those belong to Stecklein and Jaques, who are tied with six points behind Heise's seven.
Jaques, the 2023 Patty Kazmaier Award winner, is more known for her offensive game, while Stecklein has long made a name for herself as an elite shutdown defender.
Still, nobody has more goals in the playoffs than Stecklein, who has been on an offensive hot streak since women's worlds. She scored three goals in Minnesota's last two must-win regular-season games and now three in the playoffs.
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'Obviously, she's known as a world-class defensive defender,' Klee said after Stecklein's two-goal Game 2 performance in the semis last week. 'It's the playoffs. We know we have to find different ways to score goals and different people have to contribute. She knows that she exemplifies that and that's why she's one of our leaders and one of our best players.'
Between Jaques, Stecklein and Mellissa Channell-Watkins – Jaques' ever-steady defense partner – the Minnesota blue line has combined for six goals, which isn't far off the entire Ottawa team's production in the semifinals against Montreal (8). It's the same amount of goals that Montreal managed to score over the entire series (6).
That kind of offense from the blue line should give Minnesota an edge in the Finals. Thompson, the Olympic record holder for points by a defender, is bound to score eventually, too.
3. Playoffs monster Taylor Heise
She wasn't one of the very top scorers in the PWHL this season, finishing a modest 10th with 22 points in 29 games, and did not get a nod for Forward of the Year. But Heise is, once again, showing that she's one of the best in the world when it matters most.
In Game 4 against Toronto, she scored the game-winning goal in overtime to send the Frost back to the Finals. (It was Heise who scored the series-clincher against Toronto last season, too.) Her seven points in four games leads all players in scoring – and is just one shy of her point total from last year's postseason.
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'She's a big-time player and she wants to shine when the lights are bright,' said Klee. 'For her standing up in (the playoffs) is just a way of reaffirming that she's one of the best players in the world.'
Last year, Heise didn't even really turn on the jets until the Finals, where she scored three goals and six points in five games en route to winning the Walter Cup and playoff MVP. So if there's another level to her game when the puck drops on Tuesday, it could spell trouble for the Charge.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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