Ottawa Charge braces for more losses after heartbreaking defeat to Frost in PWHL final

National Post

27-05-2025

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The Ottawa Charge lost much more than just a dream with Liz Schepers' second Walter Cup-clinching goal in the PWHL's two years of existence on Monday night.
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At some point, the team will have another shot at the title.
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This particular tight-knit collection of players will not.
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'That's the toughest part,' captain Brianne Jenner said moments after the Charge was on the short end of yet another 2-1 overtime battle with the Minnesota Frost, giving the defending champs the best-of-five championship series in four games. 'The last few minutes in the dressing room … this was a special group. We went through a lot this season. Showed a lot of resiliency, and I think these last couple of weeks did something really special.
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'The effort, just the buy-in, that was a special run, and it's going to sting for a while, for sure. But I'm really, really proud of this group.'
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From the emotional moments on the ice and behind closed doors at Xcel Energy Center, to the tears in their beers at a gathering spot in the Twin Cities, the Charge will fly back to Ottawa on Tuesday night for exit meetings and post-season media interviews later in the week.
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The players will then sit back and watch that special group of theirs slowly torn apart by the expansion draft and free agency.
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Management decisions will be very difficult and the latter could very well be affected by the former.
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Ottawa, as well as the other original six PWHL teams, will lose four players to Seattle and Vancouver on June 9.
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If Jenner, for instance, is left off the unprotected list submitted next Tuesday, there will be a greater need and salary cap room to re-sign Tereza Vanisova.
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The Charge was tied with the last-place New York Sirens for fewest goals scored in the regular season and, in the playoffs, that trend was its ultimate undoing.
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The offence produced in a 3-2 win over the Montreal Victoire to open Round 1 never was matched as Ottawa scored just 10 times in its remaining seven post-season games.
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In its eight playoff dates, the Charge totalled 13 goals, one less than the Toronto Sceptres scored in four.
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Losing both Vanisova — one of the league's top goal-getters with 15 during the season and the only Charge markswoman on Monday — as well as Jenner, who has scored 18 goals in 60 total games combined for Ottawa, would be a tremendous hit.
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But it's quite conceivable both will be gone, which is why it seems imperative that Danielle Serdachny is among the three of the 15 available players the Charge protects in the first phase of the expansion draft, even though she was, by all accounts, a disappointment in her rookie season.