OTTAWA \u2014 Ottawa is returning to the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League playoffs.<\/p>\n
Gwyneth Philips stopped 41 shots as the Charge defeated the Toronto Sceptres 3-0 on Saturday to clinch the fourth and final playoff spot. The Charge will face either the Boston Fleet or Montreal Victoire in a best-of-five semifinal series.<\/p>\n
What Ottawa knows for sure, though, is it will start the playoffs on the road. Minutes after beating Toronto, the Charge announced all their playoff games will be played at Canadian Tire Centre.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s exciting,\u201d said Philips. \u201cThat\u2019s news to me a little bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, we love the fans that we\u2019ve drawn to TD Place, especially the last few games, but looking forward to really packing CTC for the playoffs. You know, bigger venue, louder crowd, so let\u2019s pack it when we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carrying momentum over from the regular season into the playoffs can be difficult. But interim head coach Haley Irwin says there are definitely things her team will want to take into the post-season.<\/p>\n
The Charge head into the post-season playing some of their best hockey. With a playoff spot on the line, Ottawa won four straight games and outscored opponents 12-2.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like it\u2019s a whole new season, right?\u201d said Irwin. \u201cBut there\u2019s things that you can take, that we will take from the last five games and the last couple of games that we have done really well, that, you know, we want to make sure that that\u2019s how we play in the playoffs.\u201d<\/p>\n
Philips has been instrumental to Ottawa\u2019s success and will look to build on last year\u2019s playoff performance that earned her the PWHL Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP award. Philips had a 1.23 goals-against-average and .952 save percentage.<\/p>\n
Philips leads the league in games played (28), is fourth with a .931 save percentage and sports a tidy 2.12 goals-against average.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you know learning about myself a little bit about what it takes,\u201d admitted Philips. \u201cBut, you know, you just kind of got to have a mind of a goldfish sometimes and keep moving.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, you know, it was a bit of a learning curve, but now I\u2019m back to kind of the position I\u2019ve been in before, so no excuses for me from here on out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last year the Charge upset the Victoire in their best-of-five semifinal series, winning 3-1. Ottawa lost the Walter Cup Final to the Minnesota Frost 3-1 but the experience was invaluable.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we learned a ton last year,\u201d said captain Brianne Jenner. \u201cPlayoffs is hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s another level from this and every puck battle, every moment matters. So, we\u2019re looking forward to taking that experience and making the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Head coach Carla MacLeod stepped away from the team earlier this month to undergo further treatment for breast cancer. MacLeod was in the building Saturday and joined the team on the bench at the end of the game.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear whether she will be able to rejoin the team for the playoffs.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t realize she was here, actually,\u201d Philips said. \u201cBut, you know, we\u2019re navigating some new waters, but she\u2019s such a beacon for us. <\/p>\n
\u201cYou know, strength and she comes when she can and it\u2019s really inspiring to see her and to know that she\u2019s behind us. Regardless if she\u2019s here we\u2019re really proud of how hard she\u2019s working to come back and be with us.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 25, 2026.<\/p>\n
Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OTTAWA \u2014 Ottawa is returning to the Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League playoffs. Gwyneth Philips stopped 41 shots as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":629010,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[49,48,82,3302],"class_list":["post-629009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-toronto","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-toronto"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=629009"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/629009\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/629010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=629009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=629009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=629009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}