Boston and Ottawa's Playoff Hopes Rest In These Three Keys

PWHL Boston and PWHL Ottawa are in a fight for their playoff lives. Here are three keys for each team as they push for the final playoff spot.

It was during the break between the end of third period and the start of overtime in Sunday afternoon’s matchup at Detroit’s Little Caesars Arena that PWHL Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod smiled. Her team had battled hard for two periods against their closest rivals, PWHL Boston – the team they most needed to gain points on in the race for the fourth and final PWHL playoff spot.

In a highly-charged contest, goals were hard to come by. Only Boston’s Hilary Knight and Ottawa’s Emily Clark were able to break through in the first 60 minutes, and now at 1-1, Ottawa faced its season-long nemesis: overtime.

For Boston, letting the three points escape was discouraging, but they had no reason to fear extra time, with a record of 3-2, all in overtime, with no shootout results.

MacLeod had seen her team lose all five of the games that went beyond regulation, some in heartbreaking fashion. Still, she managed to smile brightly and pat her players on the back, always encouraging, never letting on that the pressure of this statistical anomaly and hard-to-fathom overtime “curse” was anything to worry about.

“To me that capacity to find those moments of where you can bring some joy in and let everyone be themselves and exhale, I think it's really important. I think that then when that pressure hits, there's a calmness to the group; there's a better level of confidence to the group for so many reasons,” MacLeod has said about her coaching philosophy.

Boston and Ottawa traded chances in the five-minute period, with Ottawa creating a series of two-on-ones, and outshooting their opponent 4-1 overall. With 35 seconds left, captain Brianne Jenner looked to have the game winner on her stick, only to ring the puck off the post.

In the shootout, Boston’s Hannah Brandt and Hilary Knight scored, while Kateřina Mrázová was the only Ottawa player to notch a goal on Aerin Frankel. Boston inched ahead as the competition for fourth continues, point by point, game by game, with neither team able to gain a footing on the spot they covet.

With Ottawa now holding down fourth place after a 3-0 victory over New York on Wednesday, and Boston’s loss to Toronto, the teams face a tight, tense battle with only six games each remaining. 

Here are the three keys for each of them if they want to reach the playoffs.

Boston’s captain and undisputed superstar, Knight has not performed as well as other teams’ leaders, like Kendall Coyne-Schofeld, Alex Carpenter, and Marie-Philip Poulin. Her points per game of 0.33 is the lowest in her career, and the team simply needs more from her. Boston ranks last in goals for at 36 (tied with New York), and has the lowest power play percentage at just 7% (Ottawa’s is 27%). Knight can be a difference-maker as she showed in Sunday’s game. Boston needs her to be just that.

Coach Courtney Kessel has rotated her forward lines relentlessy in an effort to ignite Alina Müller, Knight, Jamie Lee Rattray, and the (now-injured) Loren Gabel. Nothing has worked. The acquisition of Susanna Tapani has helped balance the lines, but no combination has shown consistency on offense. Müller has just three points in her last 12 games, after 9 in the first six. After the draft, no one expected this team to struggle so mightily to put pucks in the net.

Boston’s power play percentage was even worse before they scored at 5-on-3 vs. Toronto on Wednesday (it was just 5%). They’ve scored a total of three power play goals, from Müller, Megan Keller, and Sidney Morin. Kessel has said her team has the best power-play personnel in the league, but they’ve yet to show it. Again, the talent on paper hasn’t matched the results, and they won’t go far without a power play that makes opponents wary.

When the clock strikes 60:00, Ottawa has found only disaster. They are now 0-6 in those games, gaining six points instead of a possible 12. Any of those points could have them solidly in a playoff spot. Losses to New York (when they were up 3-0 late in the third period and lost 4-3) and Montreal (with a disputed OT goal by Laura Stacey) were particularly damaging, and Ottawa held leads in three of the six games they’ve lost in extra time. Something has to give. It might not be a curse, but it must feel like one.

Trading for Tereza Vanišová was a savvy move by GM Mike Hirshfeld, knowing that MacLeod’s history with the Czech national team gives her an advantage. The three players now on Ottawa’s roster (Mrázová and defender Aneta Tejralová are the others) are not only familiar with each other, but they will play meaningful games in April’s World Championships along with coach MacLeod. If this built-in chemistry works, it could result in a playoff spot.

For Ottawa, this is an area of strength, not weakness. Their PP is by far the best in the league at 27%, with 14 goals, almost a third of the team’s total scoring. As the games get tighter down the stretch, special teams can make the difference, and Ottawa needs to continue their ability to click with the player advantage. Mrázová and Hayley Scamurra lead with three PP goals each, while the departed Lexie Adzija had two, and was a big part of the net front play that contributed to their success.

For PWHL Boston and Ottawa, the final six games will test the mettle of both franchises. Their head-to-head game on April 24 at TD Place might well be the difference-maker in qualifying for the playoffs.