Montreal chasing first place overall

Now that Montreal’s PWHL entry has locked up a playoff berth, the focus now turns to which team it will face in the post-season — and where.

As the PWHL heads into the final week of its inaugural regular season, none of the four playoff spots are locked in and, while Montreal has an avowed goal of finishing first, there are three other teams that also have a chance of claiming the top spot.

Montreal is currently tied for first with Toronto in points with 38, three more than third-place Minnesota. But the pressure is on Montreal to win its two remaining games on the road — Saturday in Ottawa and May 4 in Boston — because Toronto and Minnesota each have three games remaining. The wild card in the mix is a May 1 showdown when Minnesota visits Toronto.

With Ottawa still having an outside chance to grab the top spot, the semifinal pairings won’t be finalized until the regular season ends next weekend, but there is one scenario that Montreal wishes to avoid. If Toronto should finish first and Montreal slips to third or fourth, Toronto would have the choice of playing either the third- or fourth-place team. When you consider Toronto’s domination of Montreal — their overtime win over Montreal before a women’s world record crowd of 21,105 at the Bell Centre last Saturday gave them a 5-0 record against the locals — there’s little doubt which opponent they would choose.

There is also some question about where Montreal and Toronto will stage their home playoff games. After wrapping its home schedule with a 4-2 win over New York, superstar Marie-philip Poulin, head coach Kori Cheverie and general manager Danièle Sauvageau thanked the sellout crowd for their support. The team has sold out all seven of its home games at the Verdun Auditorium, but the arena is the second-smallest in the league with a little over 3,200 seats. In addition to the Bell Centre throng, Montreal has averaged more than 8,000 fans for games at Place Bell in Laval and that would seem to be an ideal choice for the playoffs.

Sauvageau told the fans at Wednesday’s game the team would be back in Verdun, but she didn’t specify when. When I broached the subject of arenas last week, she said all three venues have their merits. She noted the fan bases are different and she is reluctant to abandon Verdun, which also serves as the team’s training facility.

Toronto plays in the smallest arena, the 2,400-seat Mattamy Athletic Centre, which sits above a Loblaws store on the site of what was once

Maple Leaf Gardens. Toronto packed Scotiabank Arena for one game and there has been speculation the women’s games will be moved to Cocacola Coliseum, the home of the AHL Toronto Marlies, or to junior rinks in neighbouring Mississauga or Brampton.

The subject of arenas came up when I chatted with longtime NHL executive Brian Burke over brunch before the Bell Centre game. Burke, who is executive director of the PWHL Players Association, recalled a conversation with Stan Kasten, the president of the Los Angeles Dodgers who serves on the PWHL advisory board.

“I told him he got three of the arenas right, but New York and Boston were in the wrong place and Toronto is just too small,” Burke recounted. “He said he was a baseball guy and three out of six was batting .500 and, if you batted .500, you were in the Hall of Fame.”