It’s Playoff Time!!

The PWHL 2025 playoffs begin tonight! That’s right ladies and gentleman, boys and girls, and hockey fans of all ages: Your long wait is finally over! After the ups and downs of the regular season, the smashing success of the Takeover Tour and the IIHF Women’s Worlds break it’s finally time to rev it up and go get the Walter Cup!!

I’d like to wish the Boston Fleet and the New York Sirens the best off-seasons as possible and I freely admit that I would have preferred to see a first round bye for the top 2 teams and see seeds 3-6 battle it out. But on the bright side, that leaves plenty of time for any player that would like to hop on the podcast to feel free to reach out (looking at you Kelly Babstock).

Ok, enough jibber-jabber! Let’s get into it!

The Montreal Victoire finished first overall and were afforded the chance to pick their opponent in the first round. Well, they kept it close to home and gave it the ol’ “Red Rover Red Rover, Send Ottawa right over!” and picked the Ottawa Charge. The word from the team was it was a nod to limited travel, but I’m not sure how that went over in the Charge room. And call me a homer if you like, but I’m not sure that MTL is fully aware of what’s waiting for them in the opposing net. Gwyneth Philips has been white-hot as of late as she went 4-1 in her last 5 regular season games and averaged a 1.20 GAA with a .951%SV. And let’s not forget that she came in cold to the Women’s Worlds and shut that down.

I’ve been waiting awhile to use this pic again…

(Yeah I know it’s from Northeastern, but you get the idea.)

In front of Philips the Charge feature a dynamic forward group led on the scoresheet by Tereza Vanisova, Emily Clark and Shiann Darkangelo and with triple-threat Jincy Roese pacing the D, OTT has scoring options all over the ice (offense-defense-songbird).

Now on the other side of the sheet? Only the leading goal-scorer from the PWHL this season and the player commonly known as Captain Clutch: Marie-Philip Poulin. I mean what can I add to the walking legend of MPP? Nothing really, she is as advertised and I’d be willing to wager you see her hit another gear as the playoffs start (as insane as that sounds). And if you’ve watched her play in any meaningful game, Laura Stacey brings not only the scoring touch, but a little bit of the nasty as well.

Not to be outdone: In the net for Montreal is Ann-Renee Desbiens who only led the league in GAA and was 2nd in SV% to (checks notes) the MTL “backup” Elaine Chuli. I’m not sure, but is that good? Yeah I guess you could say that the Victoire goalie stable is tres bien.

The other series features the defending champion Minnesota Frost taking on the Toronto Sceptres. Now if I was a conspiracy type of cat, I’d think that part of the Montreal decision to pick Ottawa might be that they’re hoping for a similar result to last year when Toronto picked Minnesota and got sent home? Hmm? Maybe? I’m sure the Sceptres are happy for the mulligan on this matchup and I’m also sure the Frost are loving the look of their new rings.

You know what they say, everyone wants a shot at the queen.

This series I think will be a bit more wide open than the other as these rosters absolutely buzz around the sheet. And I think you’ll see more of the back end contributing as there are 3 defenders in the top 20 of the league in scoring and all of them are playing in this matchup. MIN has Sophie Jaques and Claire Thompson pacing the back end with 22 and 18 points respectively while Renata Fast is tied with Jaques for points and leads TOR for points from defenders. To me that translates to a lot of low to high plays and both squads entering the zone with pace and possession.

The Frost are arguably the most balanced team in the league with 10 skaters in double digits in points (next highest is OTT with 8) and they’re led by Kendall Coyne-Schofield who is just is one of those people that just wins at whatever she does. Taylor Heise is electric in big games /moments and like I said earlier: deep and balanced. Michela Cava, Brooke McQuigge, Britta Curl-Salemme, Kelly Pannek I mean the list of scoring threats just goes on and on. Not to put any pressure on anyone, but watch out for Grace Zumwinkle in this series, I’m picking her to light it up.

And then there are the Sceptres. We spoke on the podcast last night about how it’s easy to talk yourself into picking either team in both series, but Toronto really makes it tough as they have star power in spades.

The Sceptres are getting healthy at the right time with Natalie Spooner getting back to form and Sarah Nurse ramping up her play, but this team has so much skill it’s like reading an international all-star roster. Daryl Watts, Fast, Jesse Compher, Hayley Scarmurra, Hannah Miller, Blayre Turnbull: I mean c’mon! I’m starting to doubt my pick on the podcast now. And I’m gonna play my Matthews Arena frequent flyer card again: I had the pleasure to watch Megan Carter play for 5 seasons at Northeastern and I’m going to tell you right now; physical playoff hockey is right in her wheelhouse. Keep an eye on #23 for Toronto.

So get comfy and prepare to watch the run for the Walter Cup and let us know who you have advancing!

You can catch our most recent podcast where we give our picks and talk about the teams. You can also follow us on all socials @BTGHockeyPod and please let your friends know.

Let’s go! Because there’s absolutely nothing that beats playoff hockey

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