With The Ottawa Charge’s 2-1 win over the Victoire de Montréal on Friday, the Walter Cup PWHL finals matchup is now set: it will be between the Charge and the defending champions, the Minnesota Frost.
Minnesota won the playoffs last year by reverse-sweeping Toronto in a thrilling five-game semifinals, and then defeating Boston in the PWHL finals, once again in an epic five-game series. At the end of the playoffs, young Frost star Taylor Heise was named playoffs MVP for scoring 5 goals and 3 assists in 10 games with a final +/- of +6.
In the 2025 playoffs, Heise has once again been on a roll. In the first round, she led all players in total points with 7. Her teammates, Lee Stecklein and Michela Cava have led the playoffs in total goals with 3 each. Also notably, Frost stars Sophie Jaques and Kendall Coyne Schofield each have 2 goals, with Jaques also recording 4 assists and Schofield recording 2 assists through the first round.
What makes the upcoming PWHL finals so interesting is that these two teams played so differently to get here. While I just listed off 4 players from the Frost who are among the leaders of the playoffs in points or goals, only two Charge players even crack the 3 points needed to make the top 18 point scorers of the playoffs. The Charge have been doing the textbook definition of playing by committee, having no one player take over games, but rather winning with teamplay, strong defense, and out-of-this-world goaltending from Gwyneth Philips.
If the Charge are to win the PWHL finals, Philips might be how they do it. In the first round, she put up absolutely ridiculous stats of a 1.14 GAA and a 0.956 save percentage, figures which are both the highest of any of the 6 goalies who have suited up in the playoffs so far. Compared to how the Frost goalies have played, this difference is even more pronounced: Nicole Hensley has put up pretty average stats of 2.68 GAA and 0.909 save percentage, but the Frost’s other goalie, Maddie Rooney, has played quite poorly in her two games: her GAA sits at 4.00 and her save percentage is just 0.849.
This isn’t as one-dimensional as I’m making it seem, though. Most would agree that the Sceptres have a better O-core than Ottawa this year, and it certainly wasn’t easy for Hensley and Rooney to fend off shots from electric players like Renata Fast, Julia Gosling, and Daryl Watts. If the Charge are going to win the PWHL finals, they’re going to need to step up on offense – or just hope that Philips continues to play like a prime Dominik Hasek.
If I had to put a prediction on the PWHL finals, I would say that the Frost are going to win it all for the second year in a row. This isn’t easy to say as a resident of Ottawa and as a Charge fan, but I just think that the Charge have been relying too heavily on Philips, and that this kind of playstyle isn’t sustainable in the long term. As u/Tatrix on Reddit said, “if Philips thought this week was tough, the Frost have active depth scoring. She’s going to get bombarded.”
Poulin and Stacey of the Victoire are great players, and Poulin is the odds-on favourite to win league MVP as well as my pick for best PWHL player, but these two sort of disappeared in the playoffs. With the Frost, this won’t be as much of a problem. Between Sophie Jaques, Taylor Heise, Lee Stecklein, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and many more, the Frost have too many scoring options to just capitulate. The Charge don’t have the same star-power or depth on offense, which is why they’ll need a miracle performance from Philips to win.
One minor advantage that the Charge have over the Frost is home-ice advantage. Because the Charge are ahead of the Frost in the standings, 3 of the potential 5 games in the PWHL finals will be held at the TD Place in Ottawa. Because Charge fans are so electric (pun intended), there is a serious chance that the Charge go to Minnesota up 2-0. And by then, the series might just be as good as over.
My verdict? The Frost will win – but it will be a heck of a series.
Walter Cup PWHL Finals: When and Where to Watch?
The PWHL Finals will be streamed on TSN in Canada, on Fanduel Sports Network in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, and on YouTube for anyone else outside of Canada.
- Game 1: 7PM EDT, May 20 (TD Place, Ottawa, ON)
- Game 2: 7PM EDT, May 22 (TD Place, Ottawa, ON)
- Game 3: 5PM EDT, May 24 (Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN)
- Game 4*: 5PM EDT, May 26 (Xcel Energy Center, St. Paul, MN)
- Game 5*: 7PM EDT, May 28 (TD Place, Ottawa, ON)
* if necessary; series may be over by then
