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KANATA, ON (May 20, 2026) – The Montréal Victoire captured their first PWHL Walter Cup with a 4-0 victory over the Ottawa Charge on Wednesday night in front of 12,362 fans at Canadian Tire Centre, powered by a shutout from Ann-Renée Desbiens and a third-period offensive surge in which the team scored three times in the final 10 minutes.
Captain Marie-Philip Poulin was named the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP after finishing the postseason with eight points, tied for the most in a single playoff year in league history. Abby Roque scored twice for the Victoire and finished the playoffs tied with Poulin for the postseason scoring lead. After a scoreless first period, Roque broke the deadlock with her first goal of the night, taking a feed from Poulin off the rush just inside the blue line before throwing the puck toward the net from the boards, where it deflected off a Charge stick to give Montréal a 1-0 lead. Laura Stacey added the secondary assist and finished the postseason with seven points, trailing only Roque and Poulin. With Poulin in the penalty box midway through the third period, Roque struck again with a short-handed ‘jailbreak’ goal, driving across the crease before tucking a backhand past Gwyneth Philips to extend Montréal’s lead to 2-0 with just over 10 minutes remaining. Maggie Flaherty, who became the PWHL’s first three-time Walter Cup Champion, continued the surge for the Victoire, scoring her third goal of the postseason on a point shot that sailed over Philips’ shoulder. Lina Ljungblom added the exclamation point less than two minutes later with an unassisted goal to make it 4-0 with under five minutes remaining in regulation, as Montréal scored its final three goals in a span of 5:14. Desbiens — who signed with Montréal as an inaugural signing alongside Poulin and Stacey in 2023 — made 23 saves to secure her second shutout of the postseason. Philips, the 2025 Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP, made 12 saves in the loss.
With the victory, Montréal becomes the first Canadian team to win the Walter Cup.
QUOTES
Montréal Head Coach Kori Cheverie on if trying to stay present in the moment helped her in the team’s playoff run: “I tried to live through every moment. There were highs, there were lows, and we were able to kind of get through all of those adversity moments as a team. Whatever team we had on the ice was a team we were able to win with, so it’s been absolutely amazing with this group.”
Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin on what it means for Montréal to win their first Walter Cup: "It was very special. It's been a tough year, I'm not going to lie, since February. It was ups and downs, coming back to this group, just fighting through. It hasn't been easy—injuries, sickness, a lot of things—but we stuck together. We knew it wasn't going to be easy in this building when we showed up today, but we remained patient with our game."
Ottawa Head Coach Carla MacLeod on how the emotions of the team right now could be summarized: “Obviously when you’re playing for a championship, the objective and the goal is to win the championship. So, obviously there’s a disappointment by falling just a little bit short. So, that’s a very real feeling, a very raw feeling. But it’s amazing how quickly you can turn that into understanding what has actually transpired this season. And for our coaching staff to be able to go into the room afterwards and obviously there’s a lot of emotion, but ultimately the emotion that rises the most in myself and in our staff is just truly pride. This is a group that just kept chugging. We just kept going. Nobody gave us any credit coming into this season, nobody gave us credit halfway through the season. And this was a group of women that were just so, so driven and motivated to get better and to earn their way into a playoff spot, to earn our way into the Walter Cup Finals. You wish a better ending for the group, just because they’re such a special team. But I can tell you the biggest emotion I have right now is pride. I’m very, very proud of them.”
Charge captain Brianne Jenner on the Ottawa fanbase showing up for them all postseason despite the venue change to Canadian Tire Centre: “We’re so lucky playing for the Ottawa Charge. We absolutely love our fanbase. They show up, they’re loud, they’re with us. It was 4-0 and we almost scored in the last minute, and they were so loud, and I think that just speaks volumes. Not a day goes by that we’re not grateful that we have the fanbase that we have here.”
NOTABLES
Montréal snapped a streak of five straight Walter Cup Finals games won by the home team. The Victoire became the first road team to win a Finals game since Minnesota defeated Ottawa in Game 2 of the 2025 Walter Cup Finals.
Across regular season and postseason history, today was the 26th time in 2025-26 (most of any team) and 58th game all-time (second-most behind Minnesota’s 60) where Montréal has opened scoring in a game. It was the first time in the series that the team who scored first came away with the victory.
Their 4-0 win today marked the eighth time this season that Montréal has scored four goals and the third time they have won by a score of 4-0. It was their first-ever multi-goal postseason win and their first time scoring more than two goals in regulation this postseason. The Victoire went 14-4-2-2 when scoring at least three goals during the season.
Only one other postseason game all-time has been decided by four goals: Toronto’s 4-0 win over Minnesota on May 8, 2024.
Nine of the 15 goals in the series were scored in the third period. This postseason, Montréal scored 10/20 goals in the third but also surrendered 7/15 in the final frame. Ottawa scored five each in the first and third periods and allowed 9/17 goals in the second period.
The Charge outshot their opponent for the first time this postseason, leading the Victoire 23-16 in shots. Montréal’s shot total was its lowest since a 1-0 loss to New York on April 1, 2025.
Ottawa set a new record for the highest faceoff win percentage in a playoff game, winning 37 of 52 draws for a 71.2% win rate. The previous record for faceoff win percentage in a playoff game was 66.1% by Toronto against Minnesota in Game 2 of their 2025 semifinal series, where Minnesota won 5-3.
Montréal added the fourth shorthanded goal recorded in PWHL postseason history. Two of the remaining three were recorded by Minnesota against the Victoire.
The Victoire killed off 25 penalties this postseason, the most by any team in a single playoff run, while Ottawa’s 22 penalty kills rank second-most.
The Victoire went 0-for-7 on the power play in the final series, while Ottawa went 0-for-10. Minnesota has scored the only power-play goal in 13 Walter Cup Finals games all-time, doing so in Game 2 of the 2025 finals.
Tonight marked Ottawa’s 16th postseason game all-time — and first time being shut out. Every PWHL team that has appeared in a playoff game has now been shut out at least once.
Kori Cheverie, a native of New Glasgow, NS, became the first woman coach in PWHL history to win the Walter Cup.
Marie-Philip Poulin notched her eighth point (2G, 6A) this postseason with a primary assist, matching the PWHL’s record for most points in a single playoff campaign which has been reached by Michela Cava and Taylor Heise in 2024 and Lee Stecklein in 2025. The assist moved her total to six in nine playoff games, also tying a league record set by Heise and Claire Thompson in 2025. Today’s assist was her first postseason point earned away from Place Bell since tallying an assist on May 12, 2025 in a 2-1 loss in Game 4 of the Victoire’s semifinal series against Ottawa.
Abby Roque recorded a pair of goals to become the second player in PWHL history with two multi-goal postseason games, joining Taylor Heise (Game 5 versus Toronto and Game 1 versus Boston in 2024). The goals made her the only player to record two multi-goal games in a single playoff series, and brought her to eight postseason points (4G, 4A), tying the league record with Poulin. Montréal’s veteran forward notched all four of her goals this postseason against Ottawa. Since January 2026, the Victoire had just one loss when Roque scores a goal, with a record of 3-3-1-0 in such games.
Poulin and Roque are the only two players to have recorded multiple game-winning goals this postseason, each with a pair of such games.
Ann-Renée Desbiens recorded her second shutout of the postseason, good for the first shutout win in the finals since Minnesota’s 3-0 title-clinching win in Game 5 of their 2024 run. Desbiens was the only goaltender to record a shutout in these playoffs and became the fourth all-time to post multiple (2) in a single postseason, also extending her single-postseason streak to eight straight games allowing two or fewer goals. She finished the playoff campaign with a league-leading 1.40 goals-against average and .944 save percentage, recording 234 saves to surpass 2,000 for her career (2,012).
Laura Stacey’s helper improved her career playoff total to four goals and five assists. Of her nine points, tonight’s assist was the first she recorded in a road game. The Montréal alternate captain recorded 28 shots on goal this postseason, tied with Poulin for the most among all skaters in the 2026 playoffs and in all-time postseason history (73).
Maggie Flaherty is the first three-time Walter Cup champion in league history. She added a goal to bring her total this postseason to four points (3G, 1A), after recording just one goal in 16 playoff games for Minnesota across the 2024 and 2025 campaigns. After scoring the overtime winner in Game 2 of this series, she has two game-winning goals through 25 career postseason games.
Jessica DiGirolamo recorded her first-ever playoff point with an assist in her 17th career postseason game. The Victoire defender produced three points in 29 regular-season games (1G, 2A) in her first season with Montréal after posting eight points (1G, 7A) across 54 games with Boston. She became the sixth Montréal rearguard to record a point this postseason.
Dara Greig’s assist marked her first career playoff point, following a sophomore campaign where she posted five points (3G, 2A) in 29 regular-season games in 2025-26.
Lina Ljungblom scored her first postseason goal, previously assisting on the Victoire’s game-opener in Game 1 of their semifinal series against Minnesota. The second-year forward became the first Swedish player to win the Walter Cup.
Hayley Scamurra became the first PWHL player to win a Walter Cup and Olympic gold medal in the same season.
Sandra Abstreiter became the first player from Germany to win the Walter Cup. Nadia Mattivi became the first player from Italy to win the Walter Cup.
Gwyneth Philips suffered her first regulation loss in eight games across two Walter Cup Finals. She finished third among playoff goaltenders with a 1.99 goals-against average and .929 save percentage. Her 12-save performance brought her season total over the 1,000-mark for the first time. The Charge netminder made 20 or more saves in all of her seven starts ahead of tonight, with the loss marking the first time she has allowed four goals in 16 career postseason games.
Rebecca Leslie finished the postseason with six points, the most among Charge players, while her four goals tied Roque and Sidney Morin (MIN) for the playoff lead.
Kateřina Mrázová led all skaters with 13 faceoff wins tonight, tied for her third-best total recorded on Jan. 29, 2025 against Montréal. The Czech forward’s 86.7% efficiency from the dot set a new career-high.
Jocelyne Larocque, Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark, and Flaherty led all skaters tonight with three shots on goal.
Larocque logged 23:48 time on ice, the most of all skaters tonight, bringing her postseason total to 212:92 to lead the Charge. Ronja Savolainen was on the ice for the second-longest among skaters with 23:34. The two finished with four points (2G, 2A for Savolainen and 1G, 3A for Larocque) to own a share of the lead in postseason scoring among league blue liners.
THREE STARS
1. Abby Roque (MTL) 2G
2. Ann-Renée Desbiens (MTL) SO, 23/23 SV
3. Laura Stacey (MTL) 1A