LOWELL, MA – The Ottawa Charge inched closer to a playoff berth on Wednesday, defeating the Boston Fleet 2-1 in overtime at the Tsongas Center with captain Brianne Jenner tallying the winner to cap a two-point performance.
The Charge entered the game with an opportunity to clinch the fourth and final playoff spot with a regulation win, but by securing two points they now sit three points ahead of Toronto and will need just a single point in Saturday’s head-to-head on home ice to punch their playoff ticket. The Sceptres would qualify with a regulation win by virtue of having more regulation wins overall in a tiebreak scenario. The Fleet, who entered the game looking to leapfrog Montréal for first place, earn one point with the overtime loss, and now sit one point behind the Victoire. They will need to earn two or more points in their matchup against New York on Saturday afternoon back at the Tsongas Center than Montréal earns in their game against Seattle to secure first.
After a scoreless first period, Boston rookie Abby Newhook broke the deadlock midway through the second with her seventh of the season to give the Fleet a 1-0 lead. Boston, who outshot Ottawa 16-11 through two periods, nearly doubled their lead less than a minute into the third period as Jessie Eldridge had a breakaway opportunity, but rang her shot off the post. Gwyneth Philips thwarted the follow-up opportunity from Alina Müller to keep Ottawa within one. Rebecca Leslie tied the game 1-1 at 8:22 of the third period with her 14th of the season, re-directing a pass at the top of the crease from defender Rory Guilday, as Jenner picked up her first point on the night with the secondary helper. With Frankel and Philips each making key saves to keep the game tied, the contest went to overtime for the fourth straight game of the season series, and it was Jenner who played hero, scoring with 1:14 remaining. Philips earned her 15th win of the season, making 24 saves, while Frankel made 17 saves in the loss. Each team has one game remaining — part of the PWHL’s quadrupleheader on Saturday — with first place and the fourth and final playoff position still on the line.
QUOTES
Ottawa Interim Head Coach Haley Irwin on the mindset for next game being decisive for the playoffs. “It will be like a playoff game before the playoffs. The mindset, in terms of how we play and how we’re going to go about it doesn’t change. […] But what a fun chance do we have, right? This is why these [players] trained so hard. These are the moments. These are the games that you want to be in. So, we look at it as an opportunity to be in this situation.”
Charge goalie Gwyneth Philips on exchanging save for save with Aerin Frankel: “It’s really fun to see her. We played together for years. We still play together on the national team. I wish her great success, except when we’re playing Boston! But yeah, it’s fun to see her succeed and do well, and, playing in Boston is fun for me. We both know we’re going to have some college representation here. So, it’s at least fun for me. I hope it’s fun for her!”
Boston Head Coach Kris Sparre on the Fleet’s performance tonight: “I think we gave up way more than I like to on the defensive side of it, but in terms of creating scoring chances, we had numerous opportunities to put the game away and we didn’t do that. We’re a goal post away from sitting here with smiles on our faces saying great job.”
Boston forward Abby Newhook on tonight’s game feeling like a playoff matchup: “At the end of the season, obviously, all the games are a bit more important; teams clinching a spot in playoffs or securing your spot within that top four placement. I feel like the last two games have definitely ramped up a little bit. It gets us excited for what’s to come.”
NOTABLES
Ottawa wins the season series 7-5 in points, outscoring Boston 7-6 in regulation and overtime periods (excluding shootouts). All four matchups were decided beyond regulation, including the first three in shootouts. Last season, the Fleet’s series with the Victoire featured five of six games decided beyond regulation with three overtime and two shootout results.
The Charge are a perfect 6-0 this season in games decided in overtime and their eight wins beyond regulation is a new PWHL single-season record. Their six overtime wins are two more than the previous single-season record of four, and their eight wins beyond regulation surpasses the previous record of seven, both set by Montréal in 2024-25. Toronto’s 2-0 record in overtime games in the inaugural season is the only other instance where a team did not have an overtime loss.
Ottawa finished the season with three straight road wins in opposing PWHL markets, each by scoring only two goals. They have won six times this season (twice in regulation, twice in overtime, twice in a shootout) when scoring two or fewer goals. Only the Fleet (10) and Sceptres (8) have more such wins.
The Charge earned 20 points with a record of 2-7-0-8 in 17 games outside of Canada’s capital, counting two Takeover Tour games where they served as the home team and won in overtime in Winnipeg and lost in regulation in Calgary.
Boston has lost consecutive games for just the second time this season and suffered their first loss at the Tsongas Center in seven games at the primary venue this season (5-1-1-0).
The Fleet lead the PWHL with 16 one-goal games and now share the lead with the Charge for most one-goal wins with nine apiece.
Boston scored the game’s first goal for a league-leading 22nd time, a mark of 75.8% of their 29 games played, the most in the PWHL. With tonight’s result, their record drops to 14-4-2-2 in such instances.
Ottawa won their league leading fifth game when trailing after two periods. This was the 20th game where Boston carried a lead into the third period, suffering their fifth defeat in such games.
Brianne Jenner extended her goal streak to three games, notching three goals and three assists in that stretch. With a goal and an assist in tonight’s contest, she now has 25 points (12G, 13A), fourth in the PWHL, also moving into a tie for fourth in goals. Tonight’s tally was Jenner’s first overtime goal in her PWHL career. The Charge have a 22-2 all-time record when their captain scores a goal.
Rebecca Leslie scored her 14th goal of the season to move into a tie for the PWHL lead with Minnesota’s Kelly Pannek. The Boston University graduate extended her point streak to four games and now has eight of her 14 goals in the third period, tied for the most goals in any period this season with Jessie Eldridge (eight in the second). Leslie now has 23 points on the season, tied for fifth among all PWHL skaters.
Jenner has now assisted on nine of Leslie’s 14 goals, the most by any player to a single teammate in the league.
Gwyneth Philips recorded her 15th win of the season, the second-most in the PWHL behind Aerin Frankel and Ann-Renée Desbiens (18). The Northeastern alumna leads the league with 745 saves and 803 shots faced—more than 100 above the next-highest total. She has won her last three starts, posting a .978 save percentage over that span, including a .960 mark tonight.
Abby Newhook snapped a seven-game goalless drought with her seventh tally of the season. Despite the goal drought, the 2025 fifth-round draft pick has six points (1G, 5A) in her last six contests and is tied for second in rookie goals (7) and ranks fifth in rookie points (14).
Megan Keller recorded her 13th assist of the season to become the first defender to reach the 20-point mark in 2025-26. The Fleet captain is the fourth defender in PWHL history to hit 20 points in a season, joining Sophie Jaques (22 in 2025-26), Renata Fast (22 in 2024-25) and Ella Shelton (21 in 2024). She is just two points shy of becoming the second defender to reach 50 career regular-season points, alongside Jaques.
Jessie Eldridge recorded her eighth assist of the season to extend her point streak to three games (3G, 2A). The forward has eight points in 10 games since being acquired from Seattle, all coming in her last seven contests, and now co-leads the Fleet in scoring with 21 points (13G, 8A) alongside Alina Müller.
Frankel, making her 25th start of the season, posted a sub-.900 save percentage (.895) for the first time since Jan. 3 — and just the third time this season — ending a streak of 16 straight games with a mark of .900 or better. The Fleet netminder ranks second in both goals-against average (1.22) and save percentage (.951), behind Desbiens.
Rory Guilday ends a 12-game point drought with her eighth assist and ninth point of the year — her first since Jan. 28 vs. Seattle. The 2025 first rounder, who captured gold with Team USA at the 2026 Winter Olympics, ranks fourth in scoring among rookie defenders.
Ronja Savolainen notched her sixth assist and tenth point of the season, reaching double-digit points for the second straight season, and is just one shy of the mark she set last season (11). The helper was the defender’s fourth primary assist on a game-winning goal this season, and second on an overtime winner.
Laura Kluge was left off the Fleet lineup for a third consecutive game due to an upper-body injury, missing her fourth game of the season for Boston.
THREE STARS
1. Brianne Jenner (OTT) GWG, 1A
2. Rebecca Leslie (OTT) 1G
3. Abby Newhook (BOS) 1G
STANDINGS
Boston: 59 PTS (15-5-4-5) – 2nd Place
Ottawa: 40PTS (8-8-1-12) – 4th Place
UPCOMING SCHEDULES
Boston: Saturday, April 25 vs. New York at 12 p.m. ET
Ottawa: Saturday April 25 vs. Toronto at 2 p.m. ET