Charge, Frost kick off Game 1 of PWHL Finals on TSN
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The Ottawa Charge and Minnesota Frost kick off their quest for the Walter Cup as the PWHL Finals get underway with Game 1 on Tuesday.
Watch the Ottawa Charge take on the Minnesota Frost in Game 1 of the PWHL Finals LIVE on Tuesday at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT on TSN4/5 and streaming on TSN.ca and the TSN App.
Ottawa is coming off a 3-1 series win over the Montreal Victoire, the regular season's top team, in the semifinals.
Making the playoffs for the first time, the Charge took Game 1 from the Victoire 3-2 on a third-period goal from Shiann Darkangelo. They dropped Game 2 in quadruple overtime as Catherine Dubois was the hero for Montreal but bounced back in Game 3 as goaltender Gwyneth Philips pitched a 26-save shutout and Mannon McMahon had the lone goal in a 1-0 victory.
They completed the series upset in Game 4 with Emily Clark's goal standing as the game-winner in a 2-1 victory.
Philips became the first rookie goaltender in league history to record a playoff shutout. Since starter Emerance Maschmeyer went down with a lower-body injury on March 11, Philips stepped in to backstop the Charge to the third seed heading into the playoffs.
In 15 regular-season appearances, the 24-year-old went 8-5-1 with a .919 save percentage and 2.11 goals-against average. In the playoffs, she is 3-0-1 with a .956 save percentage and 1.14 GAA. She is one of three finalists for the PWHL's goaltender of the year award alongside Montreal's Ann-Renée Desbiens and Boston's Aerin Frankel.
“I think her best quality is just no moment is too big and she’s got a short memory,” Charge goaltending coach Pierre Groulx told The Canadian Press of Philips. “Big save or goal or whatever happens, she’s just on to the next moment, the next save.”
For the Frost, who came in the playoffs as the fourth and final seed, they dispatched the Toronto Sceptres in four games.
The reigning Walter Cup champions punched their ticket back to the finals in Game 4 as last year's playoff MVP Taylor Heise scored the overtime winner.
Toronto took a 1-0 series lead with a 3-2 Game 1 victory on two goals from Julia Gosling. But it was all Minnesota after that, as the Frost ripped off three straight wins to take the series.
“This is a testament to the group," said Frost head coach Ken Klee. "You look at the leaders Kendall (Coyne Schofield), Lee (Stecklein), and Kelly (Pannek) first and foremost as our captains and our goaltenders are experienced and veterans, and then we have our young players like Taylor (Heise), Britta (Curl-Salemme), Sophie (Jaques) and adding Claire Thompson to our group. We have a young group and we have a veteran group and they’ve been in these situations a lot. They don’t get rattled by it.”
Minnesota led the PWHL in scoring in the regular season and that carried over to the playoffs as the Frost scored 18 goals in four games against the Sceptres (Ottawa had eight goals against Montreal).
The Frost boast the top six scorers in the postseason, led by Heise with seven points, defenders Lee Stecklein and Sophie Jaques with six points, Michela Cava with five points and captain Kendall Coyne Schofield and Mellissa Chanell-Watkins tied with four.