Can Ottawa Charge rebound from greatest humiliation to make PWHL playoff push?
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The Ottawa Charge’s character is about to be put to its biggest test.
Somehow, this team has to pick itself up from the most devastating and embarrassing loss it has ever suffered.
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Can Ottawa Charge rebound from greatest humiliation to make PWHL playoff push? Back to video
Getting bulldozed by the last-place New York Sirens at TD Place on Tuesday when a regulation-time win would have finally moved the Charge into a playoff spot was just the half of it.
Six weeks after establishing a PWHL record for the most goals scored in a game, Ottawa set another, less-flattering league mark when it was on the short end of the largest one-period shots differential in league history.
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Along with giving up an unconverted touchdown in unanswered goals in the third, the greater indignity had to be in being outshot 18-0 during that final frame.
That’s right, zero. Not even one by accident.
The Charge now have the dubious distinction of joining the Boston Fleet (versus Montreal on Mar. 1) as the only teams failing to make their shot counter move in a period.
When holding onto the 3-0 lead it had with less than 19 minutes to play, the Charge looked very much like it had spent the second intermission congratulating each other on a victory.
Forward Rebecca Leslie, however, replied with a definitive “no” when asked if she and her teammates were guilty of counting their chickens before they were hatched.
“I think we all want to make the playoffs and we’re going to push every single game, every period, to try to give ourselves the best chance to do that,” said Leslie, who only a couple of hours earlier felt the great relief of finally scoring her first goal for her hometown team. “And I think that, within the group, we all care a lot. We wanted to win this game and it’s a disappointing outcome, but within our group, we have confidence in everyone that we can achieve that.”
Right now, the picture is bleak and not at all because they began Wednesday two points back of the Minnesota Frost for that last playoff spot with five games left.
That’s nothing.
That gap can be overcome with one more regulation-time victory than Minnesota which, unless the Sirens continue to rally from now only five out, could set up a battle for the last post-season reservation when the Charge hosts the Frost in the penultimate game of the season, April 30 at TD Place.
The question is: Can the Charge regain its composure to even win another game this season?
Seriously. Look at the schedule.
It has two games left with the Boston Fleet, a team that has beaten it all four times they’ve played this season, including twice in OT.
The first of the two is a “Takeover Tour” meeting Saturday in St. Louis and now seems like an appropriate time to mention the Charge has NEVER won a neutral-site game.
This season, Ottawa has fallen 2-1 to Montreal in Quebec City, 3-2 (OT) to Toronto in Edmonton, 5-0 to Minnesota in Raleigh, N.C., and last season was dropped 2-1 in a shootout to Boston in Detroit.
After the three-week break for the world women’s hockey championship, Ottawa closes out its regular-season schedule against first-place Montreal, Minnesota and in Toronto, where the team’s playoff chances were buried last year.
The Charge will talk bravely and confidently of the task ahead, but after Tuesday’s gut-punch, their actions spoke louder than their words.
While captain Brianne Jenner appeared crestfallen and mentally defeated, the normally cheerful and optimistic coach, Carla MacLeod, looked like she had just seen a ghost at the post-game media availability.
And maybe, in a way, she had.
Last year, the Charge needed to win just one of its last three games to clinch a playoff spot — and lost all three.
When asked how she would explain the third-period collapse against the Sirens, MacLeod paused for a couple of seconds with a blank look on her face before responding.
“I don’t know that answer,” she said. “We played a pretty good, solid two periods. We gave ourselves an opportunity to win a hockey game, an important hockey game and to see it transpire the way it did in the third, it’s hard to articulate. I don’t have the answers.”
MacLeod said she expected a response from her team after the Sirens scored a couple of quick goals to make it close. Instead, the Charge surrendered three more in a span of 4:41 to fall behind by a pair.
All told, New York counted five goals in 10:59 of play while Ottawa could barely venture inside the Sirens’ blue line before, during or after that stretch of ugliness.
“I think our attitude the whole time was, ‘let’s push back,’ but we didn’t find it tonight,” Jenner said. “I think there were some messy habits earlier in the game that we just kind of let slip and I think it caught up to us. I think just our details needed to be a lot better.
“There’s no excuse for that result.”
Asked what the message to the team would be going forward, MacLeod paused again before clearly deciding she would start delivering it through the reporters.
“We’ve got to dig,” she said. “We’ve got to find another gear for ourselves, another level. This is a great team. We see it so often. We saw it for two periods today. It’s staying the course for 60 and the consistency piece has been something we’ve talked a lot about this year.
“It scorched us here tonight again. It’s been in other games where we felt the same thing, where all of a sudden, one period gets tilted and it’s unfortunate because it shouldn’t be happening this late in the season. We should have a better grasp of it, but it’s on us to find it and find it quick. This is the group that can do it, and we just got to stay together.
“These are the moments that can easily tear you apart and then the rest of the season could be challenging,” she added. “But that’s not this group. We need to reset. We’ve got to figure out what went wrong, and we’ve got to figure out what is making us great. And how do we stay with it for the whole duration of the game.”
It doesn’t look good now, but somehow, the Charge has to find a way to rebound from its greatest humiliation if to make the playoffs.
If not, the team you see now, you’ll never see again.
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