Minnesota Frost To Defend Walter Cup Title Against Ottawa Charge In 2025 PWHL Finals

Parity rules in the PWHL. For the second-straight year, the league’s third and fourth-seeded teams have won their first-round playoff series and will play for the Walter Cup in the 2025 PWHL Finals.

The Minnesota Frost are the defending champions, but once again the lower-seeded squad for the final. The best-of-five series will kick off Tuesday in Ottawa — the first-ever Walter Cup Final game to be played in Canada.

There was almost nothing to separate the two teams during the regular season. Both finished with 44 points, but Ottawa earned the higher seed thanks to two additional regulation wins. The two sides also split their six-game regular-season series, each with three wins and three losses.

With the experience of a successful run, Minnesota head coach Ken Klee believes that success comes down to execution.

“It’s about our details and our habits,” Klee said. “When we do those things well, we’re a pretty tough team to beat. But like we’ve seen in this league, everybody beats everybody on a nightly basis. If you’re not sharp and you don’t play well, it’s going to be hard to win.”

Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod’s message was similar.

“I think the exciting thing at this time of year is, it’s just the details — which team is going to be able to execute their details on a higher level for longer,” she said.

Last year, Minnesota rebounded from an 0-2 series deficit in Round 1 to defeat PWHL Toronto in five games — staving off elimination with a pair of home-ice shutouts before advancing with a 4-1 win in Toronto.

This year, they dropped Game 1 in Toronto before earning the split with a 5-3 win in Game 2. Back home, the Frost won Game 3 by a score of 7-3, then erased 2-0 and 3-2 Sceptres leads to force overtime in Game 4. Taylor Heise, the 2024 playoff MVP, tallied her first goal of the 2025 post-season to send Minnesota through to Round 2.

Meanwhile, up in Canada, the Ottawa Charge were undaunted by their matchup against the PWHL’s top regular-season team, the Montreal Victoire.

After missing out on a playoff spot on the final day of their first season, the underdog Charge seized the moment by stealing a 3-2 win at the Victoire’s Place Bell in Game 1.In Game 2, they scored twice in the last five minutes to erase a 2-0 deficit and force sudden death. That game lasted a league-record 135 minutes and 33 seconds before the Victoire’s Catherine Dubois scored to end it.

Although that was the Charge’s only loss of the series, veteran captain Brianne Jenner relished the unique experience of quadruple overtime.

“That game, you had to grind through it, and it was so fun to be in that position,” she said. “It was pretty funny, the different food we had in the dressing room just to try to keep keep the energy up as things kept going. Those are the great memories. I know that game didn’t go our way, but that’s a special memory.”

Back in Ottawa, the Charge played stifling defense to earn a 1-0 win in Game 3 — the only shutout of the first round — and a 2-1 win in Game 4.

The series-winner came off the stick of veteran forward Emily Clark, 31 seconds into the third period.

Though the Frost and the Charge were deadlocked in the regular-season standings and both advanced from the semi-finals in four games, their roads to the final were decidedly different.

Minnesota relied on firepower to outscore Toronto 18-14, while Ottawa leaned on defense and goaltending to outscore Montreal 8-6.

Seven of the PWHL’s top eight scorers in the first round are members of the Frost roster, led by Heise with seven points. Ottawa’s top scorers, Clark and captain Brianne Jenner, have three points each.

But at the other end of the ice, rookie goaltender Gwyneth Philips ruled Round 1, with a goals-against average of just 1.14. For Minnesota, netminders Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney split the work. Hensley played Game 1 and Game 4, giving up six goals in a win and a loss, while Rooney allowed eight goals in a pair of wins in Games 2 and 3.

Klee has not yet named the Frost’s starter for Game 1.

“It’s no secret,” he said. “We’ve been relying on both of them to play well. We did it last year, and it served us well. And I think we kind of had the same mindset this year. Our team has great confidence in them — I think it’s a good boost. It’s an added value that we can go with either one and and kind of keep teams guessing, and also keep shooters guessing.”

Ottawa’s No. 1 netminder, Emerance Maschmeyer, has been sidelined with a lower-body injury since mid-March. Her backup, Philips, has been stellar in taking the reins.

“All year, we kind of knew, practising against her, how lucky we are to have the goalies we have in our hockey club,” Jenner said. “It’s great to see her come in and play the way that she’s been playing and we have so much confidence in front of her.”

Maschmeyer is progressing in her rehab, according to MacLeod.

“Emerance is making nice strides, there’s no doubt about it,” she said. “So it’s really encouraging for her.”

By the time the 2025 PWHL Finals conclude, the league will be less than one month out from its 2025 Draft, which will be held June 24 in Ottawa. On Thursday, the league released its 2025 draft eligibility list of 199 players — up from 167 players in 2024. With Vancouver and Seattle coming on board as expansion franchises for Season 3, the 2025 draft format and details of the expansion draft have not yet been announced.