Ottawa Charge salvaged its PWHL season when it was divided

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A month before thousands of fans at TD Place ushered the Montreal Victoire into an early offseason with haunting chants of “You Chose Us,” any PWHL team would have picked the Ottawa Charge as a first-round playoff opponent.

Before the first week of April, the Charge was as inconsistent as Toronto Blue Jays bats.

With a record of 10-1-4-11 (wins, OT wins, OT losses, regulation-time losses) that included the wild swing of an 8-3 victory and 5-0 loss against the Minnesota Frost, Ottawa was in serious danger of missing the postseason tournament for the second straight year.

Then came back-to-back victories leading into a women’s world hockey championship that seemed to be coming at a bad time.

As it turned out, it did not.

It was the three-week interruption of the PWHL schedule — when half the team’s players were in Czechia to represent their countries and the other half held short-staffed practices at TD Place — that is being remembered as the turning point.

With veterans like Shiann Darkangelo and Rebecca Leslie leading the way, those who stayed home treated the “break” like a training camp and worked harder than ever while vowing to salvage the season.

When the global tournament was over, the group reunited and league action resumed, the Charge made a strong push to qualify for the playoffs by winning two of its last three games.

That determination was never more evident than in the first round against Montreal, when Ottawa directed the Victoire to an early exit by taking the best-of-five in four games.

“Those three weeks were long weeks,” Leslie said Friday night. “We (didn’t) play games. We were grinding every single day, practising. Our teammates who were out representing their countries were doing great things, but we knew (they’d be drained) and we kind of had to lead the way when they came back.

“So I think that we really bonded, the group that was here. We took the energy and the good vibes, and we just brought them into the group when we came together. Those three weeks were really important for us.”

Emily Clark, a key member of Team Canada, agreed.

“As a player that was gone for the international break, that was a huge turning point,” she said. “Coming back, knowing how much work they put in and how much energy they had coming out of that break was super inspiring and filled our tank right away. So it’s a huge testament to the players that were here.”

Whether they wanted to admit it or not, Charge players were the underdogs against Montreal, which finished nine points ahead of Ottawa in the regular-season standings.

And, despite ending up in third while Minnesota was fourth, the same could be said for the Walter Cup showdown.

The Charge and Frost split the season series with three wins apiece, and both wound up with 44 points.

But the Frost also closed the season strongly, winning three of its last four games before taking three of four to eliminate the Toronto Sceptres in the other semifinal.

And Minnesota also has the experience of playing for the championship last year, when it won the Walter Cup by outlasting Boston in a best-of-five that went the distance.

“I guess we could go with that mentality,” shrugged Charge goalie Gwyneth Philips, who made 129 saves while allowing just six goals in four games against Montreal after closing out the regular season by stopping 112 shots and giving up just seven goals in five games. “But I think, with this league so close, is there really an underdog? Every game is a new game. I don’t know if that’s what we need to push ourselves right now. I think, I think we have a really good trust in each other, and that’s kind of what’s fueling us.

“It was fun to have the crowd chanting that, but at the end of the day I think we were playing for the person beside us more than anything.”

Now, as the first Canadian team to reach the PWHL final, the Charge should have the country behind it when both teams carry momentum into the best-of-five showdown that begins Tuesday night at TD Place.

Home-ice advantage actually could be of benefit to Ottawa, which had the second-worst home record during the season.

The Charge has given up a total of just one goal in the past two games at louder-than-ever TD Place.

“I think we had to start playing our best hockey to make it into the playoffs, and I think we had some high-pressure situations where we rose to the challenge,” captain Brianne Jenner said during a Zoom call on Saturday. “It’s really exciting to see, up and down our lineup, everyone had a solid series, and that we played great playoff-style hockey.

“It was definitely hard-fought. Montreal is a great hockey club, and I think fans were entertained by those four games. But we know it’s going to be even harder in this next series to take down the defending champs.”