PWHL
“You’re left with this sort of empty feeling that we have right now,” coach Kris Sparre said. “We wanted more. We thought we were built for more.”
Charge forward Michela Cava (right) begins the celebration of her double-OT winner past Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel on Sunday in Ottawa. Adrian Wyld
May 10, 2026
3 minutes to read
OTTAWA — The Fleet felt like they had done all they could, throwing everything in the playbook at Gwyneth Philips and the Ottawa Charge. Perhaps that’s why they lingered for so long on the ice — some players consoling their teammates, others staring in disbelief as the Charge celebrated punching their ticket to a second straight Walter Cup finals.
The Fleet finished the regular season in second place with a record 62 points and never lost three games in a row — until they dropped three straight in their semifinal playoff series, which ended their season with a 4-3, double-overtime loss Sunday at Ottawa’s Canadian Tire Centre.
Michela Cava, a midseason acquisition, hadn’t scored in an Ottawa jersey until netting the winner 1:12 into the second overtime period, despite Boston outshooting the Charge, 46-33, in Game 4 and 142-94 across the four-game series.
“You’re left with this sort of empty feeling that we have right now,” coach Kris Sparre said. “We wanted more. We thought we were built for more.”
He and alternate captain Jamie Lee Rattray each fought back tears as they addressed the media postgame, but neither allowed them to fall.
“It stings right now, obviously, but we gave it our all,” Rattray said. “You look at how many chances we had throughout the four games of this series — it doesn’t get much closer than that.”
Now the Fleet face an uncertain future, one that likely includes a massive roster shake-up as the PWHL continues to expand.
Adding more teams is a boon for the league, as Sparre made sure to note, but it presents a challenge for a first-year coach who has spent the season trying to establish a play style and a culture.
“I’d love to have every player on our team back next year so we could go at this again,” Sparre said. “But [that’s] the challenge of expansion.”
For the fourth straight game, Ottawa scored first. With the Charge on the power play, Fanuza Kadirova fired a one-timer from the point that beat Frankel low on her glove side. Sarah Wozniewicz, who was stationed outside the crease, was credited with the goal.
As they had in the first three games of the series, the Fleet controlled the play in the first period and outshot the Charge, 15-8, but continued to run into a wall in the shape of Philips.
After Rebecca Leslie doubled the Charge’s lead 3:25 into the middle frame, Shay Maloney got one back for the Fleet at 5:19, setting off a string of three Fleet goals in the span of 1:33 to give Boston its first lead.
Off an offensive zone faceoff win, Haley Winn carried the puck in on Philips, and Maloney crashed the net to slot home the rebound for her first playoff goal.
Megan Keller netted the equalizer at the six-minute mark with a one-timer from the circle on the power play — her signature move early in the regular season, but one teams adapted to and largely shut down in recent months. It was the Fleet’s lone power-play goal of the playoffs; scoreless on their previous 12 attempts, they finished 1 for 16.
Fifty-two seconds after Keller’s goal, Sophie Shirley cleaned up another rebound for her first goal of these playoffs to give Boston a 3-2 lead.
“I’m proud of our group for battling back,” Sparre said.
Brooke Hobson’s rebound tally tied the game at three apiece at 12:12.
After putting up 31 shots through two periods, the Fleet managed just six in the third despite two power-play opportunities, and as was the case four times between these teams during the regular season, the game headed to overtime.
The energy in the locker room before the first overtime period was calm, Rattray said, a result of the team’s belief in their game plan. But when Cava beat Frankel on the back door, all the Fleet could do was stare in disbelief.
“Honestly, the product we put on the ice was pretty darn good,” Rattray said. “It’s just the way hockey is. … Hockey can feel really hard, like it does right now.”
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