Ottawa fans revel in first PWHL home playoff game

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The Ottawa Senators’ short-lived playoff run may be over, but the city’s postseason fever was alive and well on Tuesday night with the Ottawa Charge hosting their first playoff game.

Between a drum line and trumpets welcoming fans into TD Place, a cache of local celebrities including artist Jamie Fine and Senators goaltender Linus Ullmark and a chorus of kazoos cheering players as they walked down “Electric Avenue” into the rink, the electricity was palpable long before players stepped on the ice.

“On a scale of one to 10, I’m probably about 11 right now,” season-ticket holder Vanessa Tucker said.

While few in the hockey world gave the Charge much of a chance against Marie-Philip Poulin and the first-place Montreal Victoire, bringing the best-of-five series back home tied 1-1 proved their mettle.

But that wasn’t a surprise for Tucker and Jennifer Tackaberry, who feel that their team has long been discredited by the media for their supposed lack of marquee players.

“They dis our team all the time, and don’t give our girls any credit or respect,” Tucker said. “We have a lot of hard-working women on our team, and we have four good lines that run through, and, if they all work together like they did in Game 1, we’re going all the way.”

All season, the confidence and belief emanating from Charge fans have been represented by the chorus of kazoos from the stands of TD Place. Their numbers continued to grow in Game 3 of the playoffs, as some of the early apprehensions from fans like Tucker wore off. Now, it’s a staple unique to Ottawa.

“At first, I thought it was a bit cheesy, but it’s really caught on,” Tucker said, who joined Tackaberry in attending Game 2 in Montreal on Sunday, when kazoos appeared among the sea of Victoire fans.

“Some of (the Montreal fans) came up to us and said, ‘This kazoo thing is really cool,’” she added. “They’re not too overbearing, but they’re enough that they still get everybody going and chanting.”

With the margins between the Charge and Victoire proving to be razor-thin through two games in Montreal, Ottawa fans’ faith in the team had already been validated, but following that Game 2 quadruple-overtime thriller in Montreal, they were just hoping the Charge would get down to business sooner in Game 3.

Eric Pommainville and Martin Villeneuve said they’d still stick around TD Place for a similar overtime scenario, but arrangements would need to be made.

“I’d call the babysitter and let them know,” Villeneuve said, laughing.

The unwavering support hasn’t gone unseen by Charge head coach Carla MacLeod, who said on Monday that she expected the fans to make up for any energy lost from the team’s five and a half-hour “Mustard Marathon.”

“It’s always a thrill to play at TD Place and for fans to get their first taste of playoff hockey,” McLeod said. “Hopefully this roof stays intact, and I feel like, if there’s a crowd that can take a roof down, it’s ours.”