Montréal Victoire advance to their first PWHL Finals, will face Ottawa Charge

The GIST: Pass the maple syrup because there’s an All-Canadian team PWHL final on deck, beginning tomorrow. Here’s how it happened.

🎉 Montréal Victoire end top-seed curse, eliminate Minnesota Frost in Game 5: The stomach bug was no match for this squad. For the first time in PWHL history, the No. 1 seed will compete for the Walter Cup. Montréal topped two-time defending champ Minnesota 2–1 last night behind stellar goaltending from Ann-Renée Desbiens and a game-winning goal from who else but Captain Clutch herself, Marie-Philip Poulin.

• Their reward? A best-of-five Finals series against the Ottawa Charge, who the Victoire beat three of four times this season. Prepare for a fierce goalie battle between Desbiens and Charge netminder Gwyneth Philips when the puck drops at 7 p.m. ET. The NHL could never.

✌️ Two more things: The PWHL’s 10th team will reportedly be announced this afternoon and Las Vegas seems to be the big winner despite never hosting a Takeover Tour game, one of the league’s methods to test potential expansion locations. Talk about a gamble.

• In news we can confirm, the June 17th PWHL Draft will feature the biggest player pool ever, with 235 players (including 23 Milano Cortina Olympians) declaring, including presumptive No. 1 pick Caroline “KK” Harvey and her USA and Wisconsin teammate Laila Edwards.