Rebecca Leslie continues her emergence as Ottawa Charge’s hometown sparkplug

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In these PWHL playoffs, the Ottawa Charge have had a penchant for starting games off on the right foot.

Aside from their Game 2 overtime thriller in their semifinal series against Montreal Victoire, the Charge has scored the first goal in each game of their playoff run.

That continued in Game 1 of the PWHL final, where Ottawa local Rebecca Leslie blew the roof off TD Place with the game’s first goal 11:34 into the second frame. It stood as the team’s only offence until Emily Clark played overtime hero to lift Ottawa to a 1-0 series lead over the Minnesota Frost.

After scoring just a single goal in the regular season, not many would’ve put down Leslie to open the scoring — in back-to-back games, no less. Last week, the Charge’s summer free-agent signing was an unlikely source of offence when she found the back of the net just two minutes into their series-clinching game against the Victoire.

“This league is unbelievably hard to score in and I think that you work all season to try to put yourself in opportunities to score goals, and those are some pretty big goals for me,” Leslie said.

Even more unlikely was the manner in which Leslie scored Ottawa’s first-ever PWHL final goal. While the Charge aren’t the kind of team to look for pretty goals, Leslie’s fit that description.

With Teresa Vanisova dropping the puck backwards at the top of the right faceoff circle, Leslie pulled and dragged it around the outstretched stick of Lee Stecklein, one of the best defenders in the world, before wiring a shot bardown over Minnesota goaltender Nicole Hensley’s shoulder.

“(Stecklein’s) stick is so long it makes it extremely difficult to play her,” Emily Clark said. “But Rebecca’s goal was incredible. To be able to get that shot off, let alone the placement of it … It was a huge boost for us just to get on the board first.”

After a first period in which Ottawa struggled to generate shots against a stifling Frost defence, Leslie’s marker was a moment of relief. As much as the Charge respected Montreal’s ability to lock down defensively, Minnesota is on another level when it comes to forcing turnovers, stepping into shots and taking the body.

The fact that Vanisova was only seconds removed from exiting the box after a successful Charge penalty kill only added to the momentum swing, which brought the home crowd into the equation. As a former Ottawa 67’s season-ticket holder and even an employee of Ottawa Sports and Entertainment Group, Leslie is well positioned to place her goal among the most frenzied at TD Place.

“We don’t take for granted every opportunity we get to play in front of this crowd,” she said. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many fans in this building, or it ever be this loud … We definitely use the crowd with us for our momentum.”

To light the lamp at home in the team’s two biggest games in its history is no small thing for a player who grew up in the Ottawa sports scene.

“The crowd finds it fun when the hometown girl scores,” said Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod, who added that Leslie’s confidence is peaking at the right time.

“The confidence has caught up to her skill level,” MacLeod said. “Leslie has been a great player in women’s hockey for a really long time, and she’s been a great player for us all season. It’s just now, with that added confidence, she’s been able to shoot the puck a few times, and she’s obviously got a great shot, so it’s always nice to see players be rewarded.”

The margins of Ottawa’s playoff success have been razor-thin every game, but depth contributions from players like Leslie have enabled the team to take a series lead over the defending league champions.

The opportunity to contribute in big moments hasn’t fazed her. Through two PWHL seasons, Leslie has three goals in 51 regular-season appearances. In just 10 playoff appearances, she has just as many goals.

“Everyone finds a little bit of an extra gear. It’s not every day you get to compete for championships,” Leslie said. “It’s something that we’ve been dreaming of doing for such a long time.

“You’re gonna fight that extra mile and do whatever you can to put the puck in the net when the puck’s on your stick.”