![\"Montreal](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1777350075_623_0x0.jpg\")
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After finishing first in the regular-season standings, the Montreal Victoire will open their 2026 Walter Cup playoffs against the defending champion Minnesota Frost. (Photo by Richard Tsong-Taatarii\/The Minnesota Star Tribune via Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Star Tribune via Getty Images<\/p>\n
In the PWHL\u2019s first three seasons, the Montreal Victoire have held first-round home-ice advantage every year. But they\u2019re still looking for their franchise\u2019s first playoff series win.<\/p>\n
After eking out top spot in the regular-season standings following a shootout win over the Seattle Torrent in the final game of the 2025-26 regular season, this year\u2019s Victoire have elected to jump into the eye of the hurricane immediately.<\/p>\n
In the PWHL, the regular-season champion can choose its first-round opponent. This time around, the Victoire have elected to go up against the two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost. <\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no team in this league that is easy to beat,\u201d said Victoire coach Kori Cheverie in a conference call on Monday. \u201cAs a collective here in Montreal, we decided to continue with our internal process of where we were and different things that we looked at. We landed on Minnesota, and we\u2019re looking forward to that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the two-time Walter Cup champions, the Frost have yet to lose a playoff series. But Montreal did hold a distinct edge in the regular-season series between the two teams, winning twice by shutout and twice in overtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve had different games against them that have gone to overtime,\u201d Cheverie said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had games that ended in regulation. We\u2019ve had six on five and five v. six. With all the different scenarios, we\u2019ve been through it all with Minnesota.\u201d<\/p>\n
For their part, the Frost are undaunted. They also started as a lower-seed in their two previous playoff runs, and were selected as the first-round opponent in 2024<\/a>, when then PWHL Toronto won the regular-season championship.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were, moreso, looking at \u2018Are we leaving this day to go to Boston or this day to go to Montreal?\u2019” said Frost captain Kendall Coyne Schofield. \u201cWhen we got the news, we were like, \u2018All right, what\u2019s the schedule?\u2019 So we start preparing for Montreal, because that\u2019s where we\u2019re going. That\u2019s where we\u2019re told to go, and it\u2019s out of our control. I think that\u2019s our mindset, and we just get ready to go to work.\u201d<\/p>\n This will be the first-ever playoff meeting between the Victoire and the Frost. In 2024, Minnesota went to the five-game limit in both its series, against Toronto and Boston. Last year, the Frost beat the Sceptres and then the Ottawa Charge, each in four games. <\/p>\n The Frost boast this season\u2019s leading scorer \u2014 veteran Kelly Pannek finished first in the league in both goals (16) and points (33) in her best season to date. Minnesota also held a six-point cushion over the fourth-place Charge in the final standings for the 2025-26 season, but the Victoire may also have been reluctant to face the team that ousted them one year ago. <\/p>\n Montreal won its first regular-season title in 2025, but positions three through five were a dead heat in the standings. After applying the tiebreakers to the three teams with 44 points, Ottawa landed in third place, Minnesota in fourth and Boston just out of the playoffs in fifth. <\/p>\n Montreal picked Ottawa<\/a>, but the Charge took out the Victoire in four games before facing the Frost in the Walter Cup final<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Frost\u2019s title defense will begin Saturday at Place Bell in Laval, Que.<\/p>\n Coach MacLeod Returns As Charge Face Fleet<\/p>\n Improving by 18 points from last season, Boston tied Montreal with 62 regular-season points but was relegated to the lower seed by virtue of the tiebreaker. Boasting shutout leader Aerin Frankel in net and Team USA\u2019s golden goal-scorer Megan Keller as their captain, Boston will hold home-ice advantage as it faces Ottawa for the first time in post-season play. <\/p>\n All four regular-season games between the two sides were decided in extra time in the 2025-26 season. Three went to shootouts \u2014 which aren\u2019t an option in the playoffs. Ottawa won the fourth in overtime at Tsongas Center in Lowell, Mass. last week, on Apr. 22.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to respect our opponents,\u201d said first-year Fleet coach Kris Sparre. \u201cIt\u2019s definitely important to analyze and and pick up tendencies of the opposition, but we feel like we\u2019re playing our best hockey and that we\u2019re a really hard team to contain. We\u2019re worried about our team first.\u201d<\/p>\n After coaching her team to the final one year ago and getting an MVP performance from her goalie, Gwyneth Philips, Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod missed some time this season as she underwent treatment following a breast cancer diagnosis last November. <\/p>\n MacLeod was on Monday\u2019s media call and will be back behind the bench when the Charge open their best-of-five series in Lowell on Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cFor me, obviously, the last five \u2014 not being on the bench was was a challenge,\u201d said MacLeod. \u201cBut in the same breath, our group made it quite easy for me. They just kept competing, and that\u2019s all you can ask for as a coach. So, really thrilled that we\u2019re at this part of the season and we\u2019ll get this opportunity to go into the postseason. Really proud of our group.\u201d<\/p>\n The Charge claimed the final playoff berth on the last day of the regular season, capping off a four-game winning streak with a 3-0 shutout of the Toronto Sceptres in a head-to-head clash which pushed the Sceptres out of the post-season for the first time.<\/p>\n Leading the way offensively for Ottawa was Rebecca Leslie, the 29-year-old who followed up seasons of one goal and two goals in her first two PWHL campaigns with a 14-goal breakout that tied her for second place in the league rankings, and included four game winners.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s come up in such big moments for us this year,\u201d said Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner. \u201cIt\u2019s been really fun and a treat to see her really take off this year.\u201d<\/p>\n Goldeneyes Win \u2018Gold Plan\u2019<\/p>\n When the PWHL\u2019s first two expansion teams in Vancouver and Seattle built out their inaugural rosters last summer, there was immediate concern that the newcomers had acquired an unfair talent advantage that would vault them to the top of the table while handcuffing the league\u2019s original six franchises<\/a>.<\/p>\n That turned out not to be the case. All four teams in the playoffs are established squads that underwent significant roster reconstructions in the wake of the expansion draft. Meanwhile, the Goldeneyes and Torrent found themselves in a battle of a different type, for the first-overall pick in the 2026 PWHL draft. <\/p>\n To make that determination, the PWHL uses a tool called the \u2018Gold Plan,\u2019 where the team that accumulates the most standings points after being eliminated from playoff contention earns the best draft position. The lowest-ranked teams still get the best opportunity for success, but eliminated teams also receive an incentive to keep trying to win, rather than \u2018tanking\u2019 and losing games in order to improve draft position.<\/p>\n The Torrent were the first team eliminated but finished tied with the Goldeneyes in Gold Plan points, with five each. Vancouver earned the first pick based on the second tiebreaker \u2014 an overtime win over the Minnesota Frost in their final game, while the Torrent had an overtime and a shootout loss to go along with one regulation win after elimination.<\/p>\n The Goldeneyes were eliminated from playoff contention against the Torrent in Seattle on Apr. 18. But by erasing a 5-3 deficit in the last two minutes of regulation, then going on to earn a 6-5 overtime win, they gained the Gold Plan status necessary to edge out the Torrent.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very exciting to have the first pick, and then that includes the first pick each round,\u201d said Vancouver general manager Cara Gardner Morey. \u201cI think there\u2019s a lot of great talent in that class, so there\u2019s a lot of good players that are going to come out of there. It is pretty exciting that you have the control of the first pick, of who you would like to bring into this city and make a big impact on our program.\u201d<\/p>\n