Ottawa Charge advance to the PWHL championship series, beating Montreal 2-1 in Game 4

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Gwyneth Philips made 19 saves and the Ottawa Charge advanced to the PWHL championship series, beating the Montreal Victoire 2-1 on Friday night in Game 4.

The Charge will face the defending Walter Cup champion Minnesota Frost in the best-of-five final, with Game 1 at TD Place on Tuesday night. The Frost beat Toronto in four games.

“Obviously, it’s just one step in this journey that we have of trying to win a Walter Cup, but it was an important step, and it was a special step,” Charge coach Carla Macleod said.

Regular-season champion Montreal lost after electing to face third-place Ottawa instead of fourth-place Minnesota.

“This one hurts,” Montreal star Marie-Philip Poulin said. “I think we had a deep enough team, but unfortunately, once again, we can’t get past the first round. It hurts. I think we’re going to need to look in the mirror and see what we can do differently, how we can change and how we can get better.”

Rebecca Leslie and Emily Clark scored for Ottawa.

Maureen Murphy scored for Montreal with 5:02 remaining, spoiling Philips bid for her second straight shutout.

“That one hurts because she’s like my best friend,” Philips said.

Leslie opened the scoring at two minutes of the first period on a rebound on a 2-on-1 break with Anna Meixner. Meixner, on the right side, kept the puck and fired a shot that went off goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens’ left pad to Leslie.

Clark scored 31 seconds into the third period. She circled the right side and came out front to beat Desbiens from close range.

Desbiens made 21 saves.

After losing Game 2 in Montreal 3-2 in four overtimes, Philips and the Charge rebounded for a 1-0 victory at home in Game 3.

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AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey