2026 PWHL Walter Cup Playoffs Preview: Victoire vs. Frost

The league-leading Montreal Victoire bought to select who they’d play within the first spherical of the playoffs, and somewhat than deciding on the workforce that squeaked into the fourth and ultimate berth on the final day of the common season, Montreal selected to go toe-to-toe with the two-time defending champions from Minnesota.

And so, Montreal will open the playoffs in opposition to the one franchise to ever hoist the Walter Cup, a Frost roster that features the league’s prime three point-getters, and a workforce that scored extra objectives than every other this season. 

It’s an actual head-scratcher of a choice by the Victoire, isn’t it? 

Well, that is determined by the way you slice it. Head-to-head outcomes this season paint a distinct image, and the four-game dropping streak Minnesota carries into the post-season seems to be fairly good in comparison with the four-game profitable streak Ottawa’s having fun with after clinching of their season finale. Add to that the truth that parity on this league is unbelievable and the understanding that frequent sense doesn’t prevail within the PWHL playoffs, and the Victoire’s alternative seems to be higher and higher. 

The development within the league’s quick existence is that the decrease seed has gained each semifinal sequence. Montreal can be hoping to place an finish to that as they attempt to turn into the primary workforce to beat Minnesota within the playoffs, win a first-ever playoff sequence and advance to the Walter Cup for the primary time. Meanwhile, the Frost can be trying to obtain sports activities’ extremely uncommon threepeat. 

The five-game semifinal opens Saturday at 2 p.m. ET at Place Bell.

Victoire X-Factor: Captain Clutch

After lacking 10 video games with a lower-body harm, captain Marie-Philip Poulin was activated from the long-term injured reserve record in time for the Victoire’s season finale on April 25 in opposition to Seattle, and she or he tallied an help and logged simply over 17 minutes of ice time.

“Obviously, for me, I did want to put a game under my belt before playoffs,” Poulin defined throughout a Zoom name wherein she used the username “mpp” and sported a ballcap in Victoire colors. “I was happy to get back on that ice. Obviously, not fully satisfied, but it’s part of it. And [I’m] obviously pretty excited to get back at it Saturday.” 

Asked if she may put a proportion on how wholesome she feels, Poulin laughed. The reply was a tough no, however Poulin did provide this: “The heart, the mind is there. So, I’m going to do anything possible to play my game.” 

So, the captain is again. The query is how wholesome Poulin feels after sustaining an harm to her proper leg, the identical one she damage on the Olympics, the place No. 29 missed two video games earlier than returning to the ice for Canada, although clearly not at her full power. 

Poulin’s 18 factors in 19 video games this common season featured 5 recorded in opposition to the Frost in three video games. The aptly named Captain Clutch additionally scored the game-winning objective in two of these contests. 

The creator of three Olympic gold medal-winning objectives has made a profession of being a one-woman X-Factor. The query is whether or not Poulin is wholesome sufficient to supply her typical one-of-a-kind contribution, as badly as her coronary heart and thoughts need it to occur. 

Frost X-Factor: Spoiler gene

Minnesota completed every of the final two common seasons in fourth place, the final workforce to get into the playoffs earlier than happening to win the Walter Cup. An enormous a part of this workforce’s identification is that they get it executed when it issues most. 

And you need to suppose that being chosen over Ottawa — a workforce they scored 20 extra objectives than this season, whereas permitting the identical quantity in opposition to — provides gasoline to their hearth. Not that anybody will admit that. 

“It doesn’t really matter that much for us,” mentioned Frost head coach Ken Klee. “It’s a tough choice, having the choice to pick. Our league is so close, and there’s so much competitive balance that, you know, I don’t think there’s any right or wrong choice for them. They made their choice, which is fine with us.” 

“It’s something that’s completely out of our control,” captain Kendall Coyne Schofield added. “We were just more so looking, ‘Okay, when are we leaving — this day to go to Boston or this day to go to Montreal?’ And when we got the news, we were like, ‘Alright, what’s the schedule?’ And so we start preparing for Montreal, because that’s where we’re going, that’s where we’re told to go, and it’s out of our control. So, I think that’s our mindset, and we just get ready to go to work.”

Alright. But does this Frost workforce are available in feeling good and able to go, understanding they’ve gained the final two Walter Cup titles as underdogs? Coach Klee mentioned he agreed with that assertion: “100 per cent.”  

Desbiens is tres, tres bien 

No goalie within the league had a greater GAA than Ann-Renée Desbiens’s glowing 1.11 throughout the common season, or a greater save proportion than her .955. 

In 25 begins, Desbiens logged seven shutouts (bettered solely by Boston’s Aerin Frankel, who had eight). She even recorded an help. 

And Desbiens has been notably good in opposition to Minnesota, which encompasses a roster of goal-scorers. In 4 begins in opposition to the Frost, Desbiens gave up simply three objectives and registered two shutouts. Her final got here of their ultimate regular-season assembly on March 25, when she made 21 saves to tempo Montreal to a 3-0 win. 

Do-over time, beginning at house 

Montreal was upset in each earlier journeys to the playoffs, and final season, little doubt stung most of all since they completed in first place and bought bounced by the lower-seeded Charge. 

“Those are the moments, that’s what keeps you coming back and want to be a part of that team,” Poulin mentioned. “That’s what keeps you hungry, what keeps you motivated. It’s not always going to be perfect, and obviously coming into the playoffs, we’ve struggled the last two years, but obviously every year it’s a new year, it’s a new team, and we’re truly excited.” 

While the playoffs are a distinct animal, the Victoire’s regular-season file at house (the place they’ll open the semis) was an unbelievable 11-2-1-1, which might’t be ignored. Just two losses in 15 video games on house ice, and if that success can carry over to the playoffs, that’s an unlimited profit for the Victoire. 

“We play for each other, we want to make a difference, and honestly, we are happy with where we’re at, where we finished the season,” Poulin mentioned. “But we’re not satisfied yet…”

Montreal put collectively an unbelievable run after the Olympic break, however essentially the most telling a part of their second half was the 10-game stretch with out Poulin. During that point, the Victoire went 7-1-1-1.

“I think that allowed our group to kind of raise and collectively continue to push forward,” mentioned head coach Kori Cheverie, whose roster was additionally with out Maureen Murphy for many of that stretch, although the ahead can be again. “Regardless of who was in the lineup or out of the lineup, our group just really came together and put forward some really great games down the stretch.”

It’s proof of the Victoire’s depth. Abby Roque, an low season acquisition, tied Laura Stacey for the workforce lead with 22 factors on the season, whereas fellow ahead Hayley Scamurra managed an enormous uptick in her manufacturing, from three factors final season to 16 throughout this marketing campaign. Rookie defender Nicole Gosling put up 19 factors of her personal and emerged as a frontrunner on the blueline. 

“She makes people around her better, and she’s been a piece to our puzzle, and she’s gotten a lot of opportunities with our group to play in multiple situations,” Cheverie mentioned of Gosling, including the defender is “a big reason why our D core has had success, our team has had success.” 

No workforce within the PWHL scored greater than the Frost’s 91 objectives this common season, no participant scored greater than Kelly Pannek’s 16 objectives, and no energy play was simpler than Minnesota’s, which owned a 23-per cent success price (and can go up in opposition to Montreal’s PWHL-best PK and its 91.8-per cent success price).  

Minnesota forwards Taylor Heise and Grace Zumwinkle cracked the league’s prime 5 in objectives with 13 apiece, and Pannek (33), Heise (30) and Britta Curl-Salemme (29) ranked Nos. 1, 2 and three in factors league-wide. 

While they face a formidable foe in Desbiens, no workforce is healthier outfitted to attempt to beat the veteran Team Canada netminder. 

“It’s no secret that Ann-Renée is an incredible goaltender, and so it’s going to be getting pucks to the net, getting inside the dots, taking her eyes away, and capitalizing on second and third chances that are at the net front,” Coyne Schofield mentioned, whereas admitting that’s all simpler mentioned than executed. 

“We have a lot of great players in that room and a lot of players who like to score goals,” she added, with amusing. 

Six members of the Frost — Coyne Schofield, Heise, Pannek, Zumwinkle, Curl-Salemme and Lee Stecklein — had been on the American workforce that gained Olympic gold, the biggest contingent from anyone PWHL workforce on the Winter Games.

To cap off that achievement with a Walter Cup would make for fairly a 12 months, certainly. 

Pannek, who gained Olympic gold in her third look on the Games, additionally gained the PWHL’s scoring title for the primary time, and she or he’ll be a frontrunner for league MVP. Add a Walter Cup, and it doesn’t get a lot better than that so far as seasons go, sports activities followers.

Winning three straight titles on the highest degree in your sport is hard. It has occurred simply 5 instances in NHL historical past, with solely two of these coming after the league doubled from six to 12 groups, and none since additional enlargement. 

The PWHL had six groups when Minnesota gained its first and second titles, and there at the moment are eight because the Frost attempt to make it three in a row. Like each unique franchise within the league, the Frost misplaced some key gamers to enlargement this previous low season. That’ll occur once more this summer time for the reason that PWHL is predicted so as to add a minimal of two extra groups, and presumably 4.  

The addition of generational abilities within the upcoming draft (headlined by Caroline Harvey) will little doubt shift the league as nicely, making it tougher nonetheless to win one Walter Cup, not to mention three in a row.