Charge Season Comes to an End With Yet Another 2-1 Overtime Loss

There's no fun way to lose an elimination game in the playoffs, but man does it really suck to lose in overtime. The fact that every single loss they suffered during this playoff run was in overtime makes it even worse. They had no business being so close to winning it all, and yet they were.

Because of Memorial Day in the states, today’s game started at 5pm on a weekday. That would have been a problem with any other hockey team, but it’s the Ottawa Charge; you know there won’t be any goals in the first period, and you know they’ll give you a few bonus periods of play at the end of it. Might as well miss the first.

Sure enough, if you missed the first period you didn’t miss much at all. Play was pretty even, Ottawa got a powerplay but barely looked dangerous, you know the drill. The Charge got a few nice chances toward the end of the period, but of course they didn’t score. Did anyone even expect them to?

They went to intermission on a bad note, after the refs called a pretty weak penalty on Savolainen. Thankfully, Ottawa did manage to kill it off in the second period.

The two teams stuck to the script for most of the second, mostly just going up and down the ice, sticking to the perimeter. Philips made the best save of the game, which is saying something. Then, just as this whole thing was starting to feel a little tired, the Frost decided to switch things up and score first. Philips had no chance on the shot. 1-0 Minnesota.

The Charge didn’t even look like they were trying to tie the game for the rest of the second, and looked very bad at the start of the third. Have we considered that this team isn’t actually that good? What if the Montreal Victoire were just really bad?

Things went from bad to worse in the third period, when Curl - who else? - hit Meixner in the knee and the Charge defender left the game. Then Clark had to go to the bench after a bad hit, but on the very same shift Vanisova got the tying goal off a great feed from Serdachny. A much needed goal for both of them. 1-1.

🚨 Tereza Vanišová (1)
🍎 Danielle Serdachny
🍏 Jocelyne Larocque pic.twitter.com/ZdVkFKJ6Fy

— x - Ottawa Charge (@PWHL_Ottawa) May 26, 2025

Overtime was pretty much in the bag by that point, but Minnesota still made things interesting. Philips made an outrageous save with about five minutes left to keep things tied. The Charge also had a ridiculous sequence at the end, but do you really think they’d pass up a chance to drag us into another overtime? Of course not.

I wish I could provide any kind of analysis of the overtime, but I’m afraid that for the second time this season, Hydro-Québec decided to spare me, as my power went out the moment overtime started. For those who read Silver Seven’s coverage of the Sens’ playoff series this year, you may remember that almost this exact thing happened to me during game 1, which I was also recapping. I swear my power doesn’t go out that often, and I promise I’m not lying when I say that the lights came back on at the exact moment that Minnesota scored, as if the hockey gods or whoever controls power outages in my province were just trying to make sure I didn’t have to watch that.

Anyways, I called a friend and followed the overtime through their feed, and based on what I did see, and this friend’s analysis of the game, I believe the overtime was extremely stressful, with both teams getting great chances. There was also an egregious missed call on a high hit on Mrazova, and a fight that put the teams at 4 on 4 for a while.

Ultimately, though, Minnesota got the game winner 12 minutes into the first overtime. With that goal, they clinched the series and their second straight Walter Cup championship. 2-1 Minnesota.

Despite being on the losing team, Gwyneth Philips was named MVP.

I’ll have more to say about this season after the dust has settled, but for now all I can say is that this sucks, and I never want to watch another playoff overtime again. Although I guess I didn't have to watch this one either.

Game notes

• Do I even need to say it? Gwyneth Philips was unreal.
• I don't want to blame the refs, but man the refs made some bad calls in this game, both in terms of giving Ottawa weird penalties and missing some pretty dirty hits. It sucks to see this happen in the PWHL when it's already such a problem in the NHL.
• I thought Ashton Bell played a very good game.