PWHL Notebook: Playoffs begin Thursday with best-of-5 semifinals

With the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s third season underway, NHL.com staff writer Anna Kulesa will be filing a biweekly notebook on all the happenings in the league. Today, a look at the 2026 PWHL Walter Cup Playoffs and the league’s growth this season.

Battle for Walter Cup begins

The PWHL is set to drop the puck on the 2026 PWHL Walter Cup Playoffs this week. On Thursday, the fourth-seeded Ottawa Charge will face the second-seeded Boston Fleet at Tsongas Center in Lowell. Ottawa was 3-1 against Boston this season, with all four matchups going to overtime. Game 2 is scheduled for Saturday in Lowell and Game 3 will head to Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa on Friday, May 8.
The top-seeded Montreal Victoire chose the third-seeded and back-to-back Walter Cup champions, Minnesota Frost, as their opponent. Montreal has won all four games against Minnesota this season. They will begin their series on Saturday afternoon at Place Bell in Montreal. Game 2 will be played in Montreal on Tuesday and Game 3 will be held at Grand Casino Arena in St. Paul, Minneapolis on Thursday, May 7. The winners of each best-of-five series will face each other in the 2026 Walter Cup Final.

Vancouver wins first overall pick

The Vancouver Goldeneyes were awarded the first overall pick in the 2026 PWHL Draft. The Goldeneyes finished the season first in the “Gold Plan” standings with five elimination points. Their two wins in their last two games secured the pick over the Seattle Torrent who only won one game after being eliminated from playoff contention. Seattle will have the second selection, the New York Sirens will have the third and the Toronto Sceptres will have the fourth pick of the draft. The deadline for players to declare for the draft is May 8. A date for the draft is expected to be announced by the league soon.

Season leaders

Frost players dominated the 2026 PWHL points race. Frost forward Kelly Pannek finished the season with a league-leading 33 points and 16 goals, setting a single-season record in points. Teammate Taylor Heise finished second with 30 points (13 goals, 17 assists) and Britta Curl-Salemme finished third with 29 points (11 goals, 18 assists). Curl-Salemme’s 18 assists led the PWHL. Montreal Victoire goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens and Boston Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel both led the PWHL with 19 wins this season. Desbiens finished first with a .955 save percentage and 1.11 goals against average. Frankel was in second with a .953 save percentage and 1.17 GAA. Sirens forward Casey O’Brien led all PWHL rookies with 22 points and teammate Kristyna Kaltounkova led rookies with 11 goals.

Marie-Philip Poulin returns

The Victoire got their captain back just in time for the playoffs. Marie-Philip Poulin returned from a lower-body injury during the team’s regular season finale against the Torrent on Saturday, April 25. Poulin missed 10 games and was put on long-term injured reserve after suffering an injury against the Boston Fleet on March 14. Poulin helped the Victoire secure the top seed, recording an assist in the team’s 2-1 win in a shootout agains the Torrent.

Third season growth

With its third season in the books, the PWHL continues to grow. The league announced a total of 1,116,497 fans attended 120 games this season, a 28 percent increase from the 2024-25 season. On April 17, the PWHL surpassed the one million fan threshold for the first time in a single season. The average home fan attendance has grown 35 percent since the inaugural season. The league’s 16-stop Takeover Tour was a success with 200,000 fans attending games in neutral-site venues. Game viewership on YouTube increased 77 percent this season with viewers from 154 countries, compared to 106 countries last season.