07-05-2025
2025 PWHL playoff preview: Montreal vs. Ottawa, Toronto vs. Minnesota
The Professional Women's Hockey League's sophomore season has ended, and the playoffs have arrived.
The Montreal Victoire officially selected the Ottawa Charge as their first-round opponent on Sunday night. As the No. 1 seed, Montreal earned the right to pick its opponent from the third- and fourth-place finishers.
Advertisement
That decision — made in part due to the proximity of their opponent — sets up a rematch between the Toronto Sceptres and Minnesota Frost. Last year, Toronto put Minnesota on the brink of elimination, only to lose the series in five games to the eventual champions.
That series will kick off the postseason on Wednesday night in Toronto at Coca-Cola Coliseum. The Montreal-Ottawa series — the league's first all-Canadian playoff matchup — will start on Thursday in Montreal at Place Bell.
Each series will be a best-of-five.
Before the puck drops on the playoffs, has a comprehensive preview of each series.
No. 1 Montreal versus No. 3 Ottawa
The odds
It looks like Montreal picked its semifinal opponent well — beyond just the benefit of bus travel — with a 63 percent chance of getting by Ottawa. The Victoire won the season series against the Charge 4-2, and should be able to take care of business in the playoffs.
Advertisement
Montreal has the best forward (Marie-Philip Poulin), the best goalie (Ann-Renée Desbiens) and arguably the best top line (Poulin, Laura Stacey and Jenn Gardiner) in the league. The team scored the second-most goals in the league (77) and allowed the fewest (67) for the best goal differential (9) in the PWHL.
It's not an unwinnable series for Ottawa, which beat Montreal in regulation in the last two head-to-head matchups. But they will likely need to rely on a big series by Gwyneth Philips, just like Boston did with Aerin Frankel last year.
The big question
Maybe it's unfair to bring up last year's playoffs so much when the Victoire have several new players on their roster. But it's also hard to forget Montreal getting swept by Boston in three straight games that required overtime. It was a low-scoring series (Boston only outscored Montreal 7-4) and Frankel largely shut the door on Montreal's stars.
Advertisement
Poulin only scored once on 18 shots and Stacey was shut out on 17 shots. Montreal's depth wasn't able to score either, with only two other players (Kristin O'Neill and Maureen Murphy) finding the back of the net in the series.
The question for Montreal is: Will this year be different?
Frankly, it's hard to imagine Poulin being largely held off the scoresheet for a second straight postseason. She's the most clutch player in the sport and actually improved her goal-scoring rate this season with 19 goals in 30 games, which paced the league. Her line with Stacey and Gardiner has been highly productive — so much so that they were the top line for Team Canada at women's worlds last month.
There's some more secondary scoring this time around, with Abby Boreen on the second line — though she hasn't scored since Feb. 15 — and Cayla Barnes on the top defense pair. While not a new face, Catherine Dubois has been a solid middle-six forward this season and could be very valuable in the postseason with her physicality and scoring touch — she has six goals on the season, including one in Montreal's final regular-season game.
Still, Montreal's success has largely hinged on Poulin. She scored 25 percent of Montreal's goals this season. They're 11-2 when she scores and 8-9 when she doesn't. So either Poulin is going to need to keep up the pace, or some others will need to step up.
The X-Factor
Philips is highly capable of stealing this series from Montreal. She's won six of her last nine games since Ottawa's No. 1 goalie, Emerance Maschmeyer, was put on long-term injured reserve. She was also one of the stars of the championship game at women's worlds, stepping into the game cold in relief of Frankel and leading Team USA to a gold medal win — against several of the Victoire's top players.
Advertisement
On the other hand, Desbiens has been the best goalie in the PWHL this season. Nobody has more wins (15), a better goals against average (1.86) or save percentage (.932).
Desbiens only lost one game against Ottawa this season and only allowed seven goals on 118 shots. Philips, meanwhile, got pulled in her first game against Montreal after allowing three goals on 12 shots. She rebounded well in her last two starts against Montreal with two wins, including one head-to-head matchup against Desbiens.
It feels like this series could be yet another goalie battle between the world's best and a young American up-and-comer.
The key matchup
Given Montreal's success when Poulin gets on the scoresheet, trying to slow down her production will be priority No. 1 for the Charge. Ottawa has solid depth on the blue line, but it will likely be Jocelyne Larocque and her D partner Ashton Bell matching up against Poulin and Montreal's top line.
Advertisement
Larocque was acquired by Ottawa in the December blockbuster trade with the Sceptres and has added a veteran presence to the blue line and provided the team with a stable shutdown defender. The Charge have kept Larocque's minutes lower than what she typically played in Toronto, which has helped her game after a tough start to the season. Larocque was only on the ice for two goals against over her last nine games in Ottawa and was a career-high plus-three in a 3-2 regulation win against Montreal on April 26.
Larocque plays a physical brand of hockey to take away space in the offensive zone and does well to get sticks into shooting lanes. Both she and Bell will be familiar with Poulin from going head-to-head in the PWHL, but also thanks to their time on the Canadian women's national team. What makes Montreal's top line tricky to defend, however, is that you can't focus all your energy on Poulin, otherwise, you'll risk leaving Stacey (who scored 11 goals this season) or Gardiner (who had 18 points as a rookie) wide open.
The bottom line
Montreal and Ottawa couldn't be more different.
Advertisement
One team has megawatt star power. The other has depth, but no major offensive standouts, though Tereza Vanišová has been very good this season. Montreal is all about sticking to its structure, while Ottawa opts for a fast, free and physical style of game.
The stylistic differences — and strong goaltending — could prove to make the series more entertaining than the odds (fairly heavily in Montreal's favor) might suggest.
No. 2 Toronto versus No. 4 Minnesota
The defending champions are favored — no real surprise there.
While Minnesota snuck into the playoffs on the final day of the season again — this time with an 8-1 win against Boston to clinch the fourth and final spot — nobody will really look at them as underdogs this time around. The Frost had the most potent offense in the league this season (85) and have proven, this year and last, that they can win when it matters most.
Advertisement
Not to mention, Minnesota won four of six regular-season games against Toronto, with three requiring overtime or a shootout. If nothing else, we can expect a close series that might (once again) go the distance.
Last year, losing Spooner in Game 3 of the semifinals was a massive blow for Toronto. Without their MVP in the lineup, Toronto only scored one goal in three straight losses against Minnesota to get knocked out of the playoffs.
After nine months of rehab and recovery, Spooner is 100 percent healthy, but is still trying to find her top form again. And that should be OK for the Sceptres in this series.
Over the course of the season, Toronto has demonstrated the ability to produce and win games without Spooner scoring nearly every single night. Toronto's offense has more capable goal scorers this year than last, with players such as Daryl Watts, Hannah Miller and Jesse Compher stepping up on offense.
Advertisement
It would be great for Toronto if Spooner entered the 2025 playoffs in MVP form. But if she's not, and she's just fine, the Sceptres have proven that it's not a death knell for them. Not the way it was last year.
Now, the status of Miller and Nurse complicates things a bit. Sarah Nurse just came off long-term injured reserve on March 23. Miller missed a game due to injury. And during a media availability on Sunday night, head coach Troy Ryan was actively trying to temper expectations for the trio of important players.
'I think it's really important to put (this) in perspective,' he said. 'All three of those players are coming off substantial injuries. And then the expectation is that they're able to perform at the level of when they left. And it's just not reality.'
The hope, if you're Toronto, is that there's enough depth to weather another ill-timed injury bug.
Advertisement
A lot improved over Toronto's climb out of the basement of the standings, such as Kristen Campbell's performance, for example. But arguably nothing has fuelled the Sceptres more than their league-leading power play.
Toronto has scored on just over 25 percent of its power play chances this season, and has scored nearly one-third of its goals (24) while on the advantage. Watts, Miller and Renata Fast are the leading power-play producers in the league.
Meanwhile, Minnesota had the worst penalty kill percentage (78.4) in the regular season this year. It should be a priority to stay out of the penalty box as much as possible, which the Frost typically do well. No team took fewer penalties this season than the Frost.
'I think a big strength for us last year was our penalty kill really got dialled in come playoff time,' said Minnesota head coach Ken Klee. 'We need to have that same mindset (this year). When they get their opportunities, we need to do the best we can to shut them down, help our goalies, keep them to the outside, and not give them clean looks.'
Advertisement
To Klee's point, Minnesota's penalty kill looked much better over the last five games of the regular season (86 percent), and shut down three power-play attempts by Toronto in a 5-2 win on March 30.
As important as special teams might be in this series, most of the game is played at five-on-five, and nobody has been better there this season than Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield.
Her 24 points on the season rank fifth league-wide, but only two of those points came on the power play. Nobody in the league had more even-strength points than Coyne Schofield (22). Her 11 even-strength goals were third, behind only Poulin and Vanišová.
No forward on the Frost plays more than Coyne Schofield in all situations. And nobody in the league plays more than Fast. So, it's probably safe to assume that we'll see Fast play head-to-head against Coyne Schofield in this series.
Advertisement
Fast has been the best all-around defender in the PWHL this season, with a punishing combination of speed, physicality and offense. She led the league in assists (16), hits (63) and was third in blocked shots (49).
'She brings everything,' said Ryan. 'She's a top offensive player. She's a top defensive player. She's a top physical player. She's a great leader. I guess to sum it up, I think she's the best defense in the world.
'So when we have her on our team, she gives us a chance to win.'
Minnesota knows what it takes to win this time of year, and they might be peaking at the right time … again. Nicole Hensley — with two wins in two-straight must-win games — certainly is.
Advertisement
While they wouldn't say it themselves — it's a new year, new team, etc. — Toronto will be looking to exorcise some demons against the team that surged and knocked them out in the first round last year.
Walter Cup projection
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
NHL, Women's Hockey
2025 The Athletic Media Company
