Montreal Victoire win their first PWHL title, beating Ottawa 4-0 in Game 4
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OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Abby Roque scored twice, Ann-Renée Desbiens made 23 saves and the Montreal Victoire won their first PWHL title, beating the Ottawa Charge 4-0 on Wednesday night in Game 4 of the Walter Cup Finals.
Maggie Flaherty and Lina Ljungblom also scored. Montreal opened the best-of-five series at home with two overtime victories, then fell 2-1 at Ottawa on Monday night. Home teams had won the last five finals games.
“Just so much love for this group,” Roque said. “I mean the things we have battled through these playoffs, it was just out of this world the amount of heart on this team. I love everybody and I couldn’t be prouder.”
The Minnesota Frost won the first two titles in league history, beating Ottawa in four games last year in the championship series. Montreal beat Minnesota in the semifinals this season.
“Congratulations to the Montreal Victoire, the 2026 PWHL Walter Cup champions!” Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said on social media. “An incredible and historic season — the Cup comes home for the first time.”
Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin was honored as the playoff MVP. She tied for the postseason lead with eight points on two goals and six assists.
“After the CWHL closed its doors there were two years where we didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Poulin said. “There was a group of women who came together to put this league together. Three years later it all comes together to win the Walter Cup. It feels good. it feels really good.”
Roque opened the scoring at 3:49 of the second period on a deflection off Ottawa defender Rory Guilday’s stick. On a break with Poulin, Roque went deep into the right corner and swept the puck to the middle, where it glanced off Guilday’s stick and past goalie Gwyneth Philips.
Roque scored short-handed at 9:58 of the third, cutting across the crease on a break and beating Philips with a backhander.
“I feel like I’ve been waiting for this playoffs for a long time,” Roque said. “I love playoff hockey. I love meaningful hockey when it’s physical and it’s tough and there’s not a lot of room to do much out there. Like, that’s where it’s fun to me.”
Poulin was off for interference when Roque scored. Montreal also killed a penalty in each of the first two periods, while Ottawa was penalty-free.
Flaherty made it 3-0 with 6:06 remaining. She put a shot from the blue line through traffic into the top right corner. Ljungblom capped the scoring off a turnover with 4:16 left.
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AP women’s hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey