Win and Ottawa’s definitely in playoffs

Boston clinches third spot in standings with important victory over Montreal in its season finale

The goal is simple for Ottawa’s Professional Women’s Hockey League team when it closes out its regular season Sunday night in Toronto.

Win, and Ottawa is in. Ottawa, despite the best efforts of Montreal on Saturday, fell three points behind Boston and Minnesota for a PWHL playoff spot when Boston edged Montreal 4-3 in their season finale. Montreal rallied from a 3-0 deficit in the third period, with Mikyla Grant-Mentis scoring twice on the power play and Marie-Philip Poulin tying the game with a little more than three minutes to play. But Kaleigh Fratkin scored the winner for Boston with 80 seconds left.

Boston clinched third place with the win.

Now Ottawa will have to match Boston’s effort to catch Minnesota for the last playoff spot. A regulation win against Toronto will tie Ottawa with Boston and Minnesota at 35 points, with Boston and Ottawa winning the tiebreakers. Anything less than a regulation win, and Minnesota is in.

“You don’t sit here and ever wish anything. The reality is you want to be able to control your own fate,” Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod said. “We have that opportunity and that’s a good thing.”

Ottawa had an opportunity to punch its ticket to the post-season 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 and lost, 4-3.

It marked the second consecutive game where Ottawa lost its focus in the second period and was unable to recover.

“I think we just didn’t execute our game plan,” Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner said. “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 of these players. Jenner, Emily Clark, Ashton Bell and goalie Emerance Maschmeyer were all part of Canada’s gold-medal team at the recent world hockey championship.

“I think experience is not a bad thing to think back on how you dealt with kind of high-pressure situations, but I think all of our players are prepared for that,” Jenner said.

Ottawa has a 3-0-0-1 record against Toronto, which has clinched first place and will be choosing its first-round opponent.

“For us, it’s doing everything we can to be in the moment,” Maschmeyer said.

“We’re going out there to take care of business and get the win,” the goalies added.

Maschmeyer will need to be at her best to deal with Toronto’s Natalie Spooner, who leads the league with 25 points, and Sarah Nurse, who is tied fourth with 21.