In front of a raucous crowd at Place Bell, the Ottawa Charge hit the ice for their historic postseason debut against the top-ranked Montreal Victoire squad. Despite missing veteran defender Jincy Roese, listed as day-to-day with an upper-body injury, Ottawa matched Montreal's pace and came out on top, winning 3-2 to take a 1-0 series lead.
Special teams played a key role early, with both teams capitalizing on three of five power-play chances, but the story was Ottawa’s resilience. Despite being counted out by many heading into the series, their urgent, must-win mindset down the stretch carried over into this historic victory.
It was only fitting that captain Brianne Jenner scored the Ottawa Charge’s first-ever playoff goal, finding the net at 4:54 of the first on the game’s opening power play. Montreal’s Maureen Murphy responded at 12:13, also capitalizing on a power play opportunity.
The second period saw more back-and-forth action, both on the ice and on the scoreboard. Ashton Bell, who scored all four of her season’s goals against Montreal, gave Ottawa the lead, only to see “Captain Clutch” herself, Marie-Philip Poulin, tie it up at 2-2 on the power play.
Shiann Darkangelo, wearing the “A” in Roese’s absence, added to her standout season with her first postseason goal at 9:17 of the third period, giving Ottawa a 3-2 lead, which proved to be the game winner.
“It was a great play by Emily (Clark) and Mannon (McMahon) on the forecheck,” said Darkangelo. “Clarky made a great pass to me and made it easy to get a puck on the net and put it in the back of the net. It was pretty exciting.”
In net, rookie Gwyneth Philips continued to impress, as she became the first rookie goaltender in PWHL history to earn a playoff victory, stopping 31 of 33 shots. It marked her third performance of the season with 30 or more saves—none bigger than this one.
After losing the first four meetings of the regular season, Ottawa has now won three straight games against Montreal dating back to February 22.
While Ottawa now holds the upper hand in the series, Jenner stressed that their approach won’t change.
“It doesn’t change our mindset too much. We wanted to have a good start,” said Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner. “We’re happy with a lot of things in our game, but we know that we’re going to have to clean some things up. They made a good push there, and I don’t think there will be any momentum from this game to the next. We’re just going to have to come out and be ready to go on Sunday.”
On the other side, Montreal is taking the loss in stride and focusing on the positives.
“It wasn't our best game and we were right there,” said forward Laura Stacey. “That game was just as much ours as it was theirs. We outshot them, we had a lot of great opportunities. We were right there. I think there is some positive to take in the sense of—okay, it wasn't our best, and we were still right there. So, if we can put that game together for a whole 60 minutes, it'll look scary.”
Ottawa’s Game 1 win set the stage for a hard-fought series, with both teams proving they can go toe-to-toe. Game 2 on Sunday promises another battle, as Ottawa looks to build on their success while Montreal aims to regain the momentum before heading back to Ottawa.