Montreal Victoire, Ottawa Charge meet in PWHL final: Schedule, what to know

Montreal has an edge heading into the PWHL Walter Cup Finals after winning the regular season series against Ottawa, 3-1.

The Victoire took the first two matchups over the Charge with a 2-1 victory on Jan. 13 and 3-1 win on Jan. 24. Ottawa got in the win column on March 22 with an overtime winner from Rebecca Leslie to defeat Montreal, 2-1. The last matchup between the teams came on April 3 when Montreal shut out Ottawa, 3-0.

Battle of the Goalies

The PWHL Walter Cup Finals will come down to a showdown between Ottawa goalie Gwyneth Philips and Montreal's Ann-Renée Desbiens, who've both turned in strong postseason performances.

Desbiens may have got off to a rough start by conceding five goals to the defending champions in their Game 1 loss, but the Olympic gold medalist responded with her first career playoff shutout against the Frost's league-leading offense to even the series, 1-1. Desbiens has made 142 saves on 151 shots across five games and leads all goalkeepers with an average of 1.56 goals against this postseason.

Poulin called Desbiens "the backbone of our team," adding that she wants to win for her goalie.

"She's our brick wall. She's so composed out there. We're truly lucky to have her," Poulin said. "There's moments where we kind of let her hang dry and she's always able to pull us out of those moments and she's done that all series long. She's unbelievable. And honestly, we can talk about that first game all day long, but how you finish, that's how it matters. And honestly, the way she finished, she's resilient. She has the grit."

Meanwhile, Philips, the reigning Playoff Most Valuable Player, has made 135 saves on 142 shots across four playoff games for the Charge with a 1.62 goals-against average. Charge head coach Carla MacLeod applauded Philips' growth in front of the net.

"She just doesn't waver," MacLeod said. "She stays behind the puck so confidently now. She's such a naturally athletic woman .... it's just been a real treat to watch her grow and watch the work ... and I think it's been fun to see the maturing piece come to be and she just is very good at her job."

Captain Clutch to the rescue

Poulin is known to put her team on her back, as evidenced by her first postseason overtime winner in Montreal's 1-0, triple-overtime win over the Frost in Game 2 to even the series 2-2. Poulin also scored the game-winner in Montreal's 2-1 win in Game 5 to knock out the Frost. She's tied with Ottawa's Fanuza Kadirova (2G, 3A) for the most points in the postseason with two goals and three assists in five games.

But it's not just Poulin. Twelve different players scored at least one point in the semifinal series against the Frost, including Laura Stacey (3G, 1A), Hayley Scamurra (1G, 2A) and Abby Roque (3A), highlighting the team's depth and versatility.

"I think it's our biggest win in our organization's history," Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie said after Game 5. "I just think even if we were down a goal, we never kind of felt out of it. And I think maybe in the past, if you get down a goal, it's hard to kind of climb out of that. And I felt like we never felt that way. I thought that there was a lot of belief."

Ottawa Charge: The comeback kids

The Charge have been here before. Ottawa returns to the Walter Cup Finals for the second straight year after falling short against the Minnesota Frost last year. They punched their ticket with a win over the Boston Fleet on Michela Cava's double-overtime winner, despite giving up a multiple-goal lead.

“I think it says a lot about us. When you go up 2-0 and then in the span of five minutes, you let that lead go, I think a lot of teams would fold," Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner said. "The fact that we were able to put that in the rearview mirror and just keep going is something that we try to cultivate in our locker room. That is stuff that we work on with our mental performance coach. ... To see it come out in a big game where it would have been easy to hang our heads right after those five minutes. But, we kept going and found a way.”

Ottawa has been resilient all season long. The Charge used a second-half surge to secure the fourth and final playoff berth on the final day of the regular season. And Cava appears to be finding her stride at the right time. Her double-overtime winner in Game 4 marked her first goal for Ottawa after coming over after winning two championships in Minnesota and spending part of the season in Vancouver.

“That was a big one. I feel like I've been trying. I've been with them for 17 games and even more now in playoffs. It just felt like I had bad puck luck," Cava said. "I have been so close so many times and it feels really good just to get this one for the girls. Everybody's been so great. I keep saying that, but it's a great team. So, it's a lot of fun.”

PWHL Walter Cup Finals schedule

• Game 1, Thursday, May 14: Ottawa at Montreal | 7 p.m. ET
• Game 2, Saturday, May 16: Ottawa at Montreal | 2 p.m. ET
• Game 3, Monday, May 18: Montreal at Ottawa | 6 p.m. ET
• Game 4, Wednesday, May 20: Montreal at Ottawa | 7 p.m. ET (if necessary)
• Game 5: TBD (if necessary)

Reach USA TODAY National Women’s Sports Reporter Cydney Henderson at chenderson@gannett.com and follow her on X at @CydHenderson.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: All-Canadian final: Montreal, Ottawa meet in PWHL Walter Cup Finals