Why a neutral-site clash with the Minnesota Frost is such a big PWHL game for Ottawa Charge
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Like their brothers with the Senators and 67’s, the Ottawa Charge hope to make like the clock on your kitchen wall and spring forward over the next few days in pursuit of a playoff spot.
The biggest game of their season is Friday night against the Minnesota Frost at Lenovo Center, the 18,700-seat home of the NHL’s Carolina Hurricanes in Raleigh, N.C.
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Why a neutral-site clash with the Minnesota Frost is such a big PWHL game for Ottawa Charge Back to video
It will be the seventh of the PWHL’s nine 2025 “Takeover Tour” dates.
A victory in regulation over the Frost will lift the Charge into the fourth and final playoff berth — both teams would have 30 points, but Ottawa will have nine games remaining while Minnesota will have just eight.
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That would represent a significant boost for coach Carla MacLeod’s team, which has been on the outside of the post-season picture looking in for much of the past three months.
Losing in regulation, however, would put Ottawa six points back and in an unenviable hole.
Meanwhile, the next biggest game of the season will be the next one on the schedule — Tuesday against the Frost at TD Place.
How is the Charge trending?
Upwards.
Since the second international break, which concluded Feb. 10, Ottawa has points in five straight games with a 2-1-2-0 record.
During that stretch, the Charge has scored 20 goals and allowed 14.
Ottawa has been the home team in all five games, one of which was a Takeover Tour tilt with the Toronto Sceptres at Rogers Place in Edmonton.
Its past three games were at TD Place and included a 3-2 overtime loss to the second-place Boston Fleet, a 3-1 win over the league-leading Montreal Victoire and a 5-4 OT victory over the last-place New York Sirens on Feb. 26.
“We really liked our momentum in Ottawa,” coach Carla MacLeod said during a Zoom call with media members to set up Friday’s game in North Carolina. “I think we’ve been able to start to establish a little bit of our style of play,
“Minnesota is the reigning Walter Cup champions and an incredible team, so it’s always a hard-fought battle. Every game is in this league. But I think the folks in Raleigh are going to get a really great, competitive game, and truly, we’re excited to get in front of them.”
If the Charge can continue its climb, fourth place won’t be the goal.
While the Victoire appear to be uncatchable with 41 points, Boston has 34 and Toronto 32.
Ottawa has a game in hand on both of those teams, too.
How has the Charge fared in previous neutral site games this season?
The old ‘close but no cigar’ idiom sums it up.
In front of 18,259 fans at Videotron Centre in Quebec City on Jan. 19, the Charge fell 2-1 to Montreal on a late power-play goal by Kati Tabin.
Shiann Darkangelo scored the lone Ottawa goal while Emerance Maschmeyer made 33 saves in a goalie duel with fellow national team member Ann-Renee Desbiens, who kicked aside 26 shots.
The Charge took a point from its meeting with the Sceptres before a crowd of 17,518 at the home of the Edmonton Oilers on Feb. 16 when Tereza Vanisova scored the lone goal of the third period.
Former Ottawa forward Daryl Watts scored twice for the Sceptres, including the OT winner, while Maschmeyer made 31 stops at and Toronto’s Raygan Kirk blocked 33 pucks.
How has the Charge played Minnesota?
Great of late.
The first two meetings were held at the Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul, with the Frost prevailing 5-2 on Dec. 19 and the Charge grabbing a 1-0 victory, thanks to a goal by captain Brianne Jenner, on Jan. 21.
The most recent clash was the highest-scoring game in PWHL history as the Charge also set a league record for most goals by one team in an 8-3 victory at TD Place on Feb. 13.
Vanisova had a hat trick while Gabbie Hughes scored twice and Jenner, Mannon McMahon and Victoria Bach had the other goals for Ottawa.
Last season, Ottawa lost four one-goal games to Minnesota (including one in OT and one in a shootout) before taking the last meeting 4-0 on April 20 at TD Place.
Who’s hot for the Charge?
Emily Clark is on fire with a six-game point-scoring streak in which she has four goals and five assists.
Hughes, who was tied for second in team scoring last season with nine goals, has recovered nicely from her slow start this year.
After going goal-less and picking up just two assists in her first 14 games, she has five goals and three assists in her past five games.
What will it mean for the Charge to be playing their first game in Raleigh?
They’re all thrilled for another chance to do their thing in front of an NHL-sized crowd in an NHL building, of course.
But one reporter asked MacLeod, who grew up an Oilers fan in Spruce Grove, Alberta, what it would mean to stand behind the visitor’s bench 20 years after the favourite team lost Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final at what was then RBC Center.
“It’s still too soon,” she said. “What a heck of a series that one was. I might have a small shutter, but I’ll be OK.”
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