Larocque’s Charge outlast Kirk’s Sceptres to make PWHL playoffs

The Professional Women’s Hockey League playoffs were sure to have a Ste Anne flavour to them, but it took until the final day of the regular season to see which of the town’s two players would advance.

In the end, it was Jocelyne Larocque’s Ottawa Charge defeating Raygan Kirk’s Toronto Sceptres 3-0 to nab the fourth and final playoff spot.

Larocque, who is 37-years-old, scored a key goal for Ottawa against New York last week, tallying the game-winner in a critical 5-1 win over the Sirens to put her team on the brink of the playoffs.

“This will be one that I’ll remember for a while. The energy in the building when we were getting close to closing it out was amazing,” Charge captain Brianne Jenner said in a post-game media scrum following the game against the Sceptres.

“Obviously, kudos to Toronto. It was a really back and forth game, but to get that in front of our fans is really special.”

Kirk has been critical for Toronto’s late-season playoff push that came up short, with the goaltender nabbing three shutouts in the final six weeks of the season. Her 0.934 save percentage and 1.87 goals against average are third-best in the league this season. Kirk was key for a late-season playoff push that came up one game short.

“We read an article somewhere that said the Sceptres had a four % chance of making the playoffs, obviously that turns out to be true today, but we put ourselves in a pretty good spot to be back in the conversation and I think that’s something the group should be proud of,” Sceptres head coach Tory Ryan said.

Ottawa will take on Boston in the first round of the playoffs, despite the Fleet finishing the regular season in second place. The PWHL allows the top seeded team to select their first round opponent for the playoffs, with Montreal selecting third-seeded Minnesota instead of the Charge.