The PWHL Finals – Recap and Prediction.
The PWHL Walter Cup Finals are set, and for the first time in the league’s three-year history, the championship trophy will stay in Canada. The Montréal Victoire and the Ottawa Charge meet in a best-of-five series that promises to be the most compelling this league has produced. Before we look ahead, it is worth recounting how each team got here, because neither path was easy.
Semifinal Recap: Montréal Victoire vs. Minnesota Frost (3-2)
Nobody handed Montréal anything.
The Victoire entered as the league’s top seed against the two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost, and were immediately reminded that championships are not awarded in the regular season. Minnesota took Game 1 in overtime 5-4, despite Laura Stacey becoming the first player in PWHL history to record a playoff hat trick. The Frost refused to go quietly.
Game 2 belonged to Marie-Philip Poulin. The captain scored her first-ever postseason overtime winner in triple overtime to level the series — the kind of moment that defines captains and swings series. Games 3 and 4 split on the road before Game 5 brought it home. Poulin struck again, scoring the series-clinching power play goal at 3:06 of the third period for a 2-1 victory. The two-time defending champions, who had never lost a game facing elimination in PWHL history, were finally sent home. Montréal had slain the giant.
Semifinal Recap: Ottawa Charge vs. Boston Fleet (3-1)
If Montréal’s path was dramatic, Ottawa’s was a masterclass in goaltending.
Boston finished the regular season with a record 62 points. They were the better team on paper and largely the better team on the ice, outshooting Ottawa 142-94 across four games. It did not matter.
After dropping Game 1 in Boston 2-1, Ottawa leaned on Gwyneth Philips and never looked back. The Charge won Games 2, 3, and 4 — with Philips stopping 36 of 37 shots in front of a PWHL playoff record crowd of 13,112 at Canadian Tire Centre in Game 3, and Michela Cava scoring in double overtime to close it out in Game 4. Boston outshot Ottawa by nearly 50 shots in the series and still went home. Gwyneth Philips was simply too good.
The Walter Cup Final: Montréal vs. Ottawa
For the first time in PWHL history, the Walter Cup will be decided entirely on Canadian ice. Two Canadian franchises. Two wildly different identities. One trophy.
What makes this matchup so compelling is that each team’s greatest strength attacks the other’s greatest vulnerability — and at the centre of it all are four players who will decide how this series ends.
The Key to Montréal: Poulin and Desbiens
There is no preamble needed for Marie-Philip Poulin. She is the greatest player in the history of women’s hockey, and she plays her best hockey when the stakes are highest. Two overtime winners in the same series against the two-time defending champions is not a coincidence. It is who she is. Ottawa has no good answer for her. Nobody does.
But Poulin does not carry Montréal alone. Ann-Renée Desbiens, the reigning PWHL Goaltender of the Year, has been equally indispensable. She led the league with a 1.11 goals-against average and seven shutouts in the regular season, and in the Minnesota series she got better as the pressure mounted, posting 25 or more saves in three consecutive games. The combination of Poulin driving the offence and Desbiens holding the fort is the most formidable one-two punch in the league. It is why Montréal finished first. It is why they are the team to beat.
The Key to Ottawa: Kadirova and Philips
Ottawa’s path to this final is built on two pillars — one of the most dangerous offensive players in the league, and the hottest goaltender in these playoffs.
Fanuza Kadirova has been the engine of the Charge attack all season, carrying that production into the postseason with force. Her ability to generate offence with her shot, her skating, and her relentless compete level makes her Ottawa’s most dangerous weapon against a disciplined Montréal defence. She will need to be at her absolute best.
And then there is Gwyneth Philips. The 2025 Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP is playing some of the most dominant goaltending the PWHL has ever seen in a playoff setting. Her 1.34 GAA and .958 save percentage led all goaltenders entering the final. She has been a wall. The challenge now is that she is no longer facing Boston’s attack, she is facing Poulin, Laura Stacey, Nicole Gosling, and a Victoire offence that led the entire league in scoring. Ottawa held opponents to one goal or fewer in six of their last seven games. Against this Montréal team, that number will be tested like never before.
The Matchup That Defines the Series
This final comes down to one question: can Gwyneth Philips be as dominant against the league’s best offence as she was against Boston?
Montréal does not overwhelm you with volume. They overwhelm you with quality. Poulin does not need ten shots to score, she needs one good one. Desbiens presents the mirror-image challenge for Ottawa. Nobody in this league generates offence like the Victoire, and nobody stops it quite like Desbiens.
This is a goaltending duel for the ages. Desbiens versus Philips. The reigning Goaltender of the Year against the reigning Playoff MVP. Two American teammates who will be opponents on the ice. The player who was better all season against the player who has been better this postseason. Women’s hockey has never staged a better Finals.
Prediction: Montréal Victoire in 5
Ottawa is dangerous, battle-tested, and Philips could extend this series on her own. Do not underestimate the Charge.
But Montréal is the better team, and Marie-Philip Poulin in a Walter Cup Final on home ice is not a situation any opponent wants to be in. The Victoire survived the hardest possible test in the Minnesota series and came out more battle-hardened for it. Desbiens is playing the best hockey of her career. And when the moment gets biggest, Poulin gets better.
Ottawa will push this to five. But in the end, Montréal lifts the Walter Cup on home ice, and Captain Poulin gets the moment she and this franchise have been building toward since day one.
Montréal Victoire win the 2026 PWHL Walter Cup in 5 games.
– Nathan Add – The Add List +