Canadian Tire named as Charge clinch playoff spot in Ottawa
The Ottawa Charge are back in the playoffs, and canadian tire is now part of the setting as the team prepares for the next stage of its season. Ottawa secured the fourth and final playoff spot in the PWHL on Saturday afternoon with a 3-0 win over the Toronto Sceptres.
The Charge finished the 2025-26 regular season with a 9-8-1-2 record and 44 points, while Toronto ended at 10-1-6-13 with 38 points. Ottawa will now wait to learn whether it faces the Boston Fleet or the Montreal Victoire in a best-of-five semifinal series.
Canadian Tire Centre becomes the playoff stage
Minutes after the win, the Charge announced that all of their playoff games will be played at Canadian Tire Centre. The team will start the postseason on the road, but the venue decision means Ottawa now has a clear home base for the run ahead.
Gwyneth Philips was central to the result, stopping 41 shots for her third shutout of the season. Ottawa opened the scoring nearly five minutes into the second period when Fanuza Kadirova scored her 10th goal of the season. Sarah Wozniewicz added her seventh goal one minute into the third period, and Alexa Vasko sealed the 3-0 victory with an empty-net goal, her second of the season.
A season that turned at the right time
The Charge entered the postseason having won four straight games and outscored opponents 12-2 over that stretch. That late surge pushed them into the field and helped them close the regular season with momentum.
Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner, who had an assist on Wozniewicz’s goal, finished the regular season with a team-leading 26 points, including 12 goals and 14 assists. Rebecca Leslie led the Charge with 14 goals and 23 points, while Ronja Savolainen led all defenders with 10 points.
What the Charge are carrying forward
Interim head coach Haley Irwin said the team wants to carry lessons from the final stretch into the playoffs. Jenner said postseason hockey demands more from every shift, every puck battle, and every moment.
Philips said the group is moving ahead with what it learned from last year’s playoff run, when Ottawa reached the Walter Cup Final before losing to the Minnesota Frost in four games. The Charge also revealed after the game that they surpassed 100, 000 total fans in attendance in 2025-26, the first time Ottawa reached that mark in a single regular season. The next update will come once the league’s No. 1 seed is set and Ottawa learns its opponent for the opening round of the playoffs, with canadian tire now part of the playoff story in Ottawa.
