"Clarkie" provides the heroics as Ottawa Charge take Game One

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The Ottawa Charge delivered the initial, staggering blow in the PWHL’s best-of-five championship bout Tuesday night at TD Place.

Emily Clark streaked down the left wing boards and fired a shot that beat Minnesota Frost goalie Nicole Hensley on the short side at 2:47 of overtime Ottawa a 2-1 victory over the defending Walter Cup champions.

The crowd of 6,184 fans chanted “Clarkie” as the Charge took a 1-0 series lead with Game 2 at TD Place on Thursday.

Gwneyth Phillips once again played a starring role, stopping 25 shots in the Charge net.

Hensley kicked aside 17 shots at the other end of the ice.

The Charge took a 1-0 lead into the third period before Minnesota capitalized on a rare error by Philips, who was on the back boards when she fumbled a pass that wound up with Frost defender Katy Knoll.

Her shot deflected off an Ottawa skate to Klara Hymlarova for an easy backhand into the vacated cage with 14:36 left on the clock.

Ottawa gave up two breakaway chances early in the second, but Philips put a pad on Brooke McQuigge’s deke attempt while Denisa Krizova slid past the left post a couple of minutes later.

Leslie opened the scoring for the second game in a row, but unlike her ice breaker at the two-minute mark of the clincher against Montreal, this time she struck at the 11:34 mark of the second period.

And this one sure didn’t look like it came from the stick of someone who has scored just six times in her previous 61 PWHL games.

After taking a backhand pass from Teriza Vanisova, Leslie held on to the puck before using Minnesota defender Lee Stecklein as a screen as she roofed a wrister from the right wing faceoff dot.

Leslie also found her way to the scoresheet later in the night, but in a less flattering way.

The Charge looked it was going on the power play with just over six minutes to play when Kelly Panek hauled down Emily Clark at the Minnesota blue line. But on the delayed call, Leslie cross-checked Mellissa Channell-Watkins in the facemask for a penalty that was downgraded from a major to a minor after a review.

The Charge were up 9-4 in shots after the first period, which saw both teams have one power play opportunity.

Most telling about the action in the opening 20 minutes is that the best scoring chance belonged to Gabbie Hughes, who cut through the slot for a clean look but fired wide less than 10 seconds before the intermission.

Before the game, the league announced a clean sweep for Canadian teams with Ottawa’s Carla MacLeod, the Montreal Victoire’s Kori Cheverie and the Toronto Sceptres’ Troy Ryan as the finalists for the PWHL’s Coach of the Year award.