Ottawa Charge fall in overtime to lose PWHL finals
Advertisement
The Professional Women’s Hockey League certainly had a second championship to remember as the Ottawa Charge and Minnesota Frost battled in four straight 2-1 overtime games in their best-of-five series to decide the winner.
Both teams had no shortage of chances in game four to win the game, with posts and outstanding saves from both teams keeping the game close.
Fourth-line forward Liz Schepers would give the Minnesota Frost back-to-back championships. After a successful forecheck, the puck went from below the goal-line to the slot. While Schepers’ initial shot was partially blocked, she was first on the ensuing rebound and banged the puck home, setting off celebrations in Minneapolis.
More than 11,000 people were in attendance for game four, which was hosted in Minnesota on the American Memorial Day holiday May 26.
Ottawa took a 1-0 series lead in game one, before the Frost stormed back to win three straight.
Ste Anne defender Jocelyne Larocque plays for the Charge, and scored one of the goals of the season in game two, albeit in a losing effort. Larocque led Ottawa defenders in playoff scoring.
Larocque struck with just 2:30 remaining in the third period to give Ottawa the lead. She activated as Rebecca Leslie circled towards the point, with Larocque picking up the puck along the half-wall. She cut to the slot, eluding all would-be checks, before slipping the puck to her forehand and past Frost goaltender Maddie Rooney.
The goal would be for naught, as Britta Curl-Salemme struck with 15 seconds to go before grabbing the overtime winner, to knot the series up at one.
“It’s playoff hockey. If one goal against is going to get you down, I don’t think you’d make it this far in the playoffs,” Larocque said after the game.
“Before overtime, we just wanted to stick with it. We were happy with our play. We made a couple of adjustments and just wanted to keep the pressure on because we were playing some really good hockey.”
Frost forward Katy Knoll was the game three hero after banging home a rebound in the third overtime period to put Minnesota on the brink of back-to-back championships. Larocque played nearly 40 minutes in the loss.