Heading into the third period of a must win game for the PWHL’s Ottawa Charge, the home team led 3-0.
It looked like things were going Ottawa’s way. They were 20 minutes away from a playoff spot. Then, Ottawa experienced a complete and colossal collapse that may have cost them a playoff spot.
1:25 into the third period, Jessie Eldridge scores for the New York Sirens. Minutes later, they scores again, and again, and again, and again… and again. When the final buzzer sounded, New York celebrated a 6-3 win.
Not only did New York score six unanswered goals in the third period, they also outshot Ottawa 18-0 in the period. Ottawa, a team who opened the night six points ahead of New York in the standings did not manage a shot in an entire period. They did not even direct a dump in, or have a missed pass directed on the goal. It was a collapse that was not only colossal, it was complete.
“There’s no excuse for that result”
As Ottawa Charge captain Brianne Jenner said there was no excuse for the way that game turned around. Jenner had scored Ottawa’s second period goal to give her team a 3-0 lead. Rebecca Leslie and Emily Clark had first period goals.
“Our attitude the whole time was to push back, but we didn’t find it tonight,” said Jenner. “We had some missing habits earlier in the game that we let slip and I think it caught up to us. Our details needed to be a lot better. There’s no excuse for that result.”
Head coach Carla MacLeod turned a more positive note, despite the fact games like this have cost coaches in many professional leagues their jobs.
“We’ve got to dig. We’ve got to find another gear for ourselves,” said MacLeod. “This is a great team. We see it so often. We saw it in two periods today. It’s staying the course for 60 minutes. These are the moments that can easily tear you apart and the rest of the season could be challenging but that’s not this group. We need to reset and figure out what went wrong, what makes us great and how to stay with it for the duration of the game.”
What’s next for Ottawa?
The Ottawa Charge owned their own fate heading into Tuesday’s game trailing the final playoff spot by only two points, with a game in hand. A regulation or overtime/shootout win would have put Ottawa into the final playoff spot. Now, Ottawa must rely on other teams to get into the playoffs. In particular, the Charge will need the Minnesota Frost to lose at least one of their final five games in regulation to have a chance. As a reminder, the Minnesota Frost earned the final playoff spot in the inaugural 2024 playoffs by winning five straight games to close their season.
The second last game of the PWHL season for each team is on April 30, when the Ottawa Charge and Minnesota Frost face-off in Ottawa for what could be a season deciding game.
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