Ottawa heads into final weekend of PWHL season looking to clinch playoff spot

The goal is simple for Ottawa’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team when they close out their regular-season Sunday night in Toronto.

Win and they’re in.

Ottawa (8-1-6-8) and Boston (7-4-3-9) enter the weekend tied at 32 points, but Ottawa holds fourth place in the standings and the final playoff spot with more regulation wins.

The outcome of Boston’s game Saturday against visiting Montreal will have huge implications for Ottawa. A Boston regulation loss means Ottawa is in. But any result with Boston getting a point means Ottawa will have to at least match that outcome on Sunday.

“You don’t sit here and ever wish anything,” said coach

Carla MacLeod. “The reality is you want to be able to control your own fate. We have that opportunity and that’s good.”

Ottawa will be practising when the Boston game starts, but there are some players who say they will definitely be tuning in afterwards.

Ottawa had the opportunity to punch its ticket to the postseason Tuesday night against New York but failed to take advantage. Ottawa jumped out to a 2-0 first period lead and then gave up four goals in the second period to lose 4-3.

It marked the second consecutive game where Ottawa lost its focus in the second period and was unable to recover, which set the stage for a dramatic finale.

“I think we just didn’t execute our game plan,” said captain Brianne Jenner. “I think we went in there with the right mindset, we wanted to clinch that day, and things just started to unravel and I think momentum shifts in hockey games and we weren’t quick enough to end that shift.”

High pressure games are nothing new for most players.

Jenner, Emily Clark, Ashton Bell and goalie Emerance Maschmeyer were all part of Canada’s team at the recent world women’s hockey championship that beat the United States in overtime in the gold medal game.

“I think experience is not a bad thing to think back on how you dealt with kind of highpressure situations, but I think all of our players are prepared for that,” Jenner said. “I mean, everyone’s a high-performance athlete here that looks forward to those opportunities.”