High-stakes playoff race a privilege for Victoire’s vets

The energy inside Canada Life Centre on Sunday was one of pure celebration, marking a milestone for women’s hockey in a city that has long cherished the professional game.

But for the Montreal Victoire, Sunday’s PWHL Takeover Tour stop against the Ottawa Charge was strictly a business trip.

“Every point matters,” said Oakbank product and Victoire defender Kati Tabin, who had upwards of 80 friends and family in the building. “I feel like we’ve said this so much, that every shift matters. It’s crazy how skilled every team is in this league. You’ve got to go into each game as if it’s your last, in a way.”

That’s because beyond the roaring Winnipeg crowd and Tabin’s emotional homecoming lay the most intense, top-heavy playoff race in professional hockey right now.

With nine regular-season games still on the schedule, the Victoire have dropped into second place in points behind the Minnesota Frost and the Boston Fleet following Sunday’s overtime action. Boston and Minnesota sit atop the standings at 42 points, while Montreal remains closely behind at 40.

In most professional leagues, finishing first simply means securing home-ice advantage. In the PWHL, it means securing a unique edge: the right to choose your first-round playoff opponent.

With only four teams making the post-season, the first-place finisher gets 24 hours to select their semifinal matchup from either the third-place or fourth-place squad. The second-place team will face whoever isn’t selected.

Last season, the pick-your-opponent approach proved a double-edged sword. A logjam in the middle of the standings meant a three-way tie between the third, fourth and fifth-place teams, making it almost impossible to choose the “best” option.

This year is shaping up to be a completely different beast. Montreal, Minnesota and Boston have separated themselves into an elite tier of their own.

“When you’re at the top, it’s hard to stay at the top,” Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie noted about the tight race between the three clubs. “With our three-point system (for wins), it can change very quickly. So, we really don’t focus on the standings at all.”

With the win on Sunday, the Ottawa Charge now sit tied with the Toronto Sceptres in points (31) in the fourth and final playoff spot — 11 points back of the leaders. The New York Sirens are in sixth with 27 points. The Vancouver Goldeneyes (24) and the Seattle Torrent (19) round out the bottom of the group.

So, earning the No. 1 seed this year doesn’t just mean avoiding another PWHL heavyweight in the opening round, it also means handpicking an underdog potentially several points back in the standings. Ask the Victoire locker room about the positives of finishing first, however, and you’ll get a clinic in deflection.

“I prefer not to choose an opponent,” Cheverie said. “Finishing first is great, but it’s not the Walter Cup. The Walter Cup is the most important thing, and we want to get into the playoffs. That’s our focus, our mindset and we do everything each day to get a little closer.”

For Cheverie and her staff, surviving the stretch run of the regular season means managing the mental toll as much as the physical one.

“We’re constantly trying to figure out what needs to happen next,” Cheverie said of keeping things fresh. “Does the meeting need to be 15 minutes? Does it need to be 10 minutes? Do we need to maybe cut down on something here so that we can maximize energy there?”

Victoire forward Laura Stacey echoed the punishing nature of the league’s parity. Having to fight for your spot, she added, only brings out the best in each team.

“That’s what this league is all about. Every single night you’ve got to show up,” Stacey said. “If you have an off-night, unfortunately, other teams can take advantage of that. It’s literally who shows up that is going to take home that three points.”

If Montreal cannot clinch first place by the season finale on April 25, they will likely have to navigate two distinctly different challenges of playing Boston or Minnesota.

Goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens is the calm, veteran backbone of the Victoire. She also happens to have the best seat in the rink to give a comparative analysis of the distinct challenges that come with playing the Fleet versus playing the Frost.

“Boston’s offence mainly comes from their defence. They have a really good pairing in (Megan) Keller and (Haley) Winn, and they do a good job moving the puck and getting shots through with a lot of traffic,” Desbiens said. “While Minnesota has a lot of very good forwards that attack with speed and generate more off the rush.”

Desbiens brings a steadying presence to pressure-packed moments like these. For a player who grew up playing boys’ hockey until university and briefly retired after the 2018 Olympics because there were no viable options to play professionally, the pressure of a high-stakes playoff race is a privilege.

“Regular season is one thing, and obviously, you want to make the playoffs, you want to have home-ice advantage,” Desbiens said. “But at the end of the day, the race is to make the playoffs. It doesn’t matter if you’re first, second, third or fourth. If we finish first, so be it. If we finish second, so be it… Once you make the playoffs, it’s a whole new season.”

That perspective is shared by Tabin, who never imagined she would get the chance to play professional hockey in front of extended family in Manitoba. She recalled looking up to local hero Jennifer Botterill as a kid, noting how few female athletes from the province were visible on the national stage at the time.

“When I left Winnipeg right after high school, I thought… besides my mom and my dad and my brother who travel and come see me, I thought, ‘That’s it,’” Tabin reflected.

“My uncles, aunts, friends, people who maybe can’t afford to fly and come see me… this is such a surreal moment. Ultimately, I’m just grateful that I get to play in this league, that I get to be a role model for little girls in Manitoba.”

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