One of the quirks of the Professional Women’s Hockey League is that the team that finishes in first place gets to choose whether they want to face the third or fourth-placed team in the first round of the playoffs. On Sunday, the Montreal Victoire had that choice and chose to play the Ottawa Charge.
“We have the privilege to choose an opponent,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie after Saturday’s game. “It’s not an easy decision. All the teams are hard to play against and then you pick an opponent and they probably feel extra ammo coming at us. We know we have to go through everybody anyway. We’ve got to be confident that we’re going to pick an opponent and we’re going to stick to that and we have to come out on top.”
Ottawa is making their first postseason appearance, securing their berth with a dramatic overtime win against Toronto on Saturday. If they had lost that game in any fashion, they would be on the outside looking in.
Last year Montreal finished second in the standings and after the Toronto Sceptres picked to play Minnesota, Montreal was left with the Boston, and were swept in the best-of-five with three overtime losses.
Montreal was 3-1-0-2 against both Ottawa and Minnesota this season, winning three games in regulation, one in a shootout and losing twice in regulation.
Season Series vs Ottawa
November 30: Ottawa @ Montreal – W 4-3 (SO)
December 6: Montreal @ Ottawa – W 2-1 [Canadian Tire Centre, Ottawa]
January 19: Ottawa @ Montreal – W 2-1 [Quebec City]
January 29: Ottawa @ Montreal – W 4-1
February 22: Montreal @ Ottawa – L 3-1
April 26: Montreal @ Ottawa – L 3-2
Game 1 of the series will take place on Thursday night at Place Bell.
