The last day of the PWHL regular season on Saturday will be anything but boring.
All eight teams are in action in four consecutive games to conclude the league’s third regular season.
The Toronto Sceptres and Ottawa Charge will compete in a must-see Battle of Ontario, beginning at 2 p.m. ET on CBC and CBC Gem. A regulation win for the Sceptres will give Toronto the fourth and final playoff spot, based on number of regulation wins as a tiebreaker. Ottawa will take the playoff spot with any other result.
Both the Boston Fleet and Montreal Victoire are in contention for the top playoff seed. The winner will get to pick their first-round playoff competition, between third-place Minnesota and either Toronto or Ottawa.
Even the Vancouver Goldeneyes and Seattle Torrent, who won’t advance to the playoffs, have something to play for. The expansion teams are playing for pride and Gold Plan points, which will determine who gets to draft first overall in this year’s entry draft.
Here’s a preview of all four games on the PWHL’s super Saturday.
New York Sirens at Boston Fleet, 12 p.m. ET
Only one point separates the second-place Fleet and first-place Montreal Victoire heading into the final day of the regular season.
But teams don’t seem eager for the opportunity to pick their playoff opponent. For two consecutive years, the top-seeded team (Toronto in 2024 and Montreal in 2025) fell to the team they chose to play.
That could be one reason why Boston Fleet head coach Kris Sparre has downplayed his team’s desire to finish atop the standings.
“We can’t be in control of Montreal,” Sparre said after his team’s loss on Wednesday. “We can’t be in control of what happens in Seattle in that game. We can control how we can address [Saturday’s] game, and play a very compact, connected game so that we’re feeling good about ourselves going into playoffs. Whether we finish first or second really does not mean a whole lot to us in our locker room. We want to finish in first place at the end of May, not at the end of April.”
Boston will face a New York Sirens team that’s been eliminated from playoff contention, and can’t mathematically finish atop the Gold Plan standings, where teams receive points for winning games after being eliminated.
CBC Sports’ Karissa Donkin explains the Gold Plan, which the PWHL is using, in an attempt to discourage teams from tanking.
The question for Sparre might be whether he will rest some of his stars. Both Captain Megan Keller and Alina Müller took big hits in Wednesday’s loss to Ottawa. Meanwhile, starter Aerin Frankel has played more minutes than all but two goaltenders in the league.
Toronto Sceptres at Ottawa Charge, 2 p.m. ET
After a disappointing start to the season, the Sceptres looked like a different team after the Olympic break. The team climbed back into playoff contention, and as recently as a few days ago, the Sceptres were in the driver’s seat.
Not anymore. The Sceptres needed a bit of luck to set up this do-or-die game against Ottawa, after losing three of the last four games.
The most recent game, a 1-0 overtime loss to New York, featured a stellar performance in net from goaltender Raygan Kirk. Some of Toronto’s top players competed through injury, including captain Blayre Turnbull, who couldn’t take faceoffs.
Yet, the Sceptres couldn’t muster a goal.
“When someone like Kirk plays the way she does, when some of our key players and leaders are playing through injuries, you kind of expect just a little bit more from someone to find a way to get it done,” head coach Troy Ryan said after Tuesday’s game. “But ultimately, it’s me, honestly. Tonight, I would say their coach convinced them the right way to play better than I did.”
A regulation win over Ottawa, in front of the Charge’s rabid fans, is the only way the Sceptres will play in a third consecutive postseason.
The Charge will continue to look to its top trio of rookie Sarah Wozniewicz, captain Brianne Jenner and Ottawa’s own Rebecca Leslie. Jenner has six points in her last three games, including the game winner over Boston on Wednesday.
Needing a regulation win to clinch a post-season berth, Ottawa defeats Boston 2-1 in overtime with a goal from Brianne Jenner. The Charge and Sceptres will play for the fourth and final playoff spot in the nation’s capital on Saturday, the last day of the regular season. Toronto must win in regulation, otherwise Ottawa will advance to the Walter Cup Playoffs. The game begins Saturday at 2 p.m. ET on CBC Television.
Ottawa goaltender Gwyneth Philips is also finding her stride at the right time. Last year’s Billie Jean King playoff MVP has allowed only three goals total in the last three games, including a 42-save shutout the last time Toronto and Ottawa faced off.
Minnesota Frost at Vancouver Goldeneyes, 7 p.m. ET
The Goldeneyes sit one point behind the Seattle Torrent in the Gold Plan standings. A regulation win coupled with a Torrent loss of any kind would be enough for Vancouver to finish first in the Caroline Harvey sweepstakes. (You can read more here about how the Gold Plan works.)
With all the uncertainty around what rosters will look like ahead of expansion, Harvey represents a rare bit of certainty. She’s a defender you can build a team around, and one who will be an immediate star in the PWHL.
In addition to being MVP at the most recent Olympic tournament, Harvey led the Wisconsin Badgers to yet another national championship, and was named the winner of the Patty Kazmaier Award, given to the top player in college hockey. She’s one of only three defenders to ever win the award, joining Hockey Hall of Famer, Angela Ruggiero, and Vancouver defender, Sophie Jaques.
Finishing second in the Gold Plan standings doesn’t necessarily mean securing the second pick at the entry draft. That’s because it’s unclear where an expansion team would pick in the draft. So it’s first or bust for Vancouver or Seattle.
The Goldeneyes are coming off a big regulation win over the first-place Montreal Victoire earlier this week and, before that, an overtime win over Seattle, thanks to four goals from Jennifer Gardiner.
Vancouver’s Tereza Vanišová had a goal and two assists as the Goldeneyes hold Victoire back from clinching first place in PWHL standings.
“We know that if you win that you get the first pick,” Vancouver head coach Brian Idalski said. “We can control that. That’s kind of just a sidebar to us finishing on a high note and just wanting to play the right way and win some hockey games down the stretch.”
The Frost have clinched the third playoff seed regardless of how Saturday’s game goes. It’s the first time in three seasons that the Frost haven’t had to play desperate in the final days of the regular season to make it into the playoffs.
While other teams have been in playoff mode for the last few games, the Frost haven’t had as much at stake. The team has lost its last three games.
Nobody will be doubting the two-time champion Minnesota Frost come playoff time, but it’s one thing that could work against the Frost this season.
Montreal Victoire at Seattle Torrent, 10 p.m. ET
The last game of the regular season will see the first-place Victoire face the last-place Torrent. The top seed is at stake for Montreal, and the first-overall pick is on the line for Seattle.
If you’re wondering whether players and coaches think about the Gold Plan, the answer is yes, at least in Seattle. Head coach Steve O’Rourke reminded his team what they were playing for during the second intermission of Wednesday’s game against Minnesota.
“I think it’s cool that we’re playing for something,” O’Rourke said. “I think it helps Minnesota. It will help Montreal. We’re going to try to give our best and get them ready for playoffs. For us, it’s for us to get as high up [in the draft] as possible.”
One thing to watch is whether captain Marie-Philip Poulin returns to the lineup ahead of the playoffs. A lower-body injury has kept her out of action for more than a month. Poulin was on the ice at practice with her team in Vancouver on Thursday.
Even without Poulin, the Victoire have a ton of momentum going into the playoffs. Wednesday’s loss to Vancouver was Montreal’s first regulation loss since January. It broke a 16-game point streak.
In that game, the Victoire nearly overcame a 4-0 deficit. It started with head coach Kori Cheverie’s bold decision to pull her goaltender with more than eight minutes left in the third period, followed by a hat trick from Hayley Scamurra.
It was a test of adversity and some practice playing six-on-five for a Victoire team that’s been rolling for most of 2026. How Montreal responded to that adversity says a lot about how difficult the Victoire is going to be to play against in the postseason.
“I think it kind of led to us playing a little more desperate, a little more aggressive, and clearly it helped,” Scamurra said. “We need to obviously find a way to do that five-on-five, but I think it got the team going in that direction. I’m proud of the group for that.”
