Ready for the song of the summer to drop

The GIST: The best-of-five PWHL Finals are officially set after the Ottawa Charge eliminated the Montréal Victoire (who notably chose to play Ottawa) with Friday’s 2–1 Game 4 win. Revenge, served cold.

• Can the Charge keep up their Cinderella run, or will the defending champ Minnesota Frost (who pulled off their own upset of the Toronto Sceptres last week) repeat? We’re about to find out — the puck drops on Game 1 tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET.

💜 Reigning playoff MVP Taylor Heise, Frost in familiar territory: Minny clearly has no problem playing the underdog, reaching the Finals as the No. 4 seed, just like they did during last year’s title run. And forward Heise is once again stepping up with the pressure on, boasting a playoff-best seven points with six assists and a goal in four semifinal games against Toronto. So clutch.

• After splitting the regular-season series 3-3, the Frost will rely on their playoff experience and the tendy tandem of Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney in the quest to hoist that Walter Cup again.

❤️ Ottawa Charge advance to Finals in their first postseason appearance: From missing the playoffs entirely last year, to squeaking in on the final day of this year’s regular-season, to reaching the title series, Ottawa’s been doing their best Paul Rudd impression in the league’s sophomore campaign.

• Leading the, ahem, charge? Rookie goaltender Gwyneth Philips and her astounding 1.14 goals against average in the playoffs. This battle between the pipes is not to be missed — tune in on TSN in Canada and on the PWHL YouTube channel in the U.S.

The GIST: There are only four teams still skating for the honor of hoisting Lord Stanley: the Florida Panthers and Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference and, for the second straight season, the Dallas Stars and Edmonton Oilers in the Western Conference.

• But those four squads aren’t the only ones flying high: Nicole is crushing the competition in our bracket challenge. She picked 10 of the 12 completed series correctly, but there’s lots of hockey left — and 258 of you picked winners who are still in the hunt. Game on.

🐆 Florida Panthers demolish Toronto Maple Leafs in Game 7: In a storyline everyone saw coming, it was in fact not the Leafs’ year. The Buds, who led this second-round series 2-0 just 12 days ago, are making yet another early postseason exit and heading into an offseason of uncertainty following last night’s lopsided 6–1 loss. Death, taxes, and no cup since ’67.

• As for the winners, the defending champ Panthers are heading to their third consecutive Eastern Conference final, where they’ll face the Canes in a rematch of the 2023 conference finals. The puck drops tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET. Do you get déjà vu?

⭐ Dallas Stars eliminate Presidents’ Trophy–winning Winnipeg Jets in Game 6 thriller: It took overtime, but the Stars shined bright on Saturday, using a game-winner from defender Thomas Harley to sink the Jets 2–1. Up next? A conference finals rematch beginning on Wednesday vs. the Connor McDavid–led Oilers, who eliminated the Stars in six games last year.

• As for the Jets’ lone goal-scorer, that was forward Mark Scheifele, who lit the lamp mere hours after the unexpected death of his father. And hockey fans showed their support, donating more than $30K to the team’s charity. It’s bigger than sports.

🏆 Are you experiencing extreme fandomitis, aka the inability to focus on anything except the next game? While your team surges toward the championship, let us take one decision off your plate: which spirit to put on the top of your shopping list for a postseason hockey hang.

• Smirnoff No. 21 Vodka makes party planning easy because, just like the skaters on your team’s top line, its versatility is unmatched.

• Whether your preferred cocktail is an ode to your fandom or a classic martini, smooth doesn’t even begin to cover it.*

The GIST: After a whirlwind two rounds of high-stakes basketball, it’s on to the conference finals. The Eastern Conference action, featuring a pair of dragon slayers in the NY Knicks and Indiana Pacers, doesn’t tip off until Wednesday, so today’s all about the West. Let’s hoop to it.

👊 Oklahoma City Thunder crush injury-riddled Denver Nuggets: Game 7s are usually down-to-the-wire, but yesterday’s 125–93 OKC win was anything but — the Thunder rebounded from a slow start to punch the franchise’s first conference finals ticket since 2016. MVP candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander dropped 35 points, but this was a team dub with five players netting double-digit points.

• Still, the Nuggets deserve their flowers. Of course, Nikola Jokić was his MVP-caliber self, while Aaron “the heart of Denver hoops” Gordon battled through a Grade 2 hamstring strain to record eight points and 11 rebounds in 25 minutes. Unimaginable.

🐺 Minnesota Timberwolves — rested or rusty? While the Thunder just played a full seven-game set, the Wolves have been waiting in the wings after wrapping up their second-round series against the Golden State Warriors in just five games. Now, they’ll head to OKC for tomorrow’s 8:30 p.m. ET Game 1, with hopes of knocking off the top-seeded and historically good squad.

• Anthony Edwards and the Wolves are underdogs in this one, but these canines aren’t afraid of a little Thunder: In the last two seasons, they’ve sent superstars like Phoenix Suns Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and LA Lakers Luka Dončić and LeBron James packing. Woof.

🏒 Your hockey team may be out of the postseason, but three social media mavericks are still in the running to become Canada’s Next Great Hockey Creator, our search for underrepresented voices lifting up the hockey community, held in partnership with Truly Hard Seltzer.

Here’s who made the finals:

➡️ Joe Fornasier from Burlington

➡️ Hien Pham, hailing from Calgary

➡️ And Lyss Houde, straight out of St. François Xavier

Show your support for the next social media icon-in-the-making by checking out their page before we select a winner later this month. Canada’s Next Great Hockey Creator will receive $10K, a trip to the 2025 Stanley Cup® Final, and of course, lots and lots of Truly. Consider that lamp, lit.