Charge Chase History in Walter Cup Finals
Ottawa's women's hockey team faces Montreal in Game 4 tonight with a record-breaking crowd behind them and a move to Kanata looming.
The Ottawa Charge are one win away from hoisting the Walter Cup, and they're doing it in front of crowds that have shattered professional women's hockey records. Game 4 of the PWHL championship series tips off Wednesday night at Canadian Tire Centre, where 16,894 fans packed the building for Game 3—a testament to how badly this city wants its new team to win.
But underneath the electric atmosphere and the come-from-behind victory that forced a Game 4 sits a quieter conversation nobody wants to touch right now: whether this is the beginning of the Charge's era in Kanata, not downtown at TD Place where the season began. The whispers are there. The winks are there. And when PWHL founder Mark Walter starts selling franchises to individual ownership groups, Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer could bundle a women's team with an NHL package deal that might move attendance numbers for both.
The Charge have been shattering attendance records at CTC, eclipsing the roughly 8,300-seat capacity at TD Place and drawing crowds that rival some NHL regular-season games. Coach Carla MacLeod stood in the arena before Game 3 and told herself, "How is this my job?" Players like Kanata-born Rebecca Leslie, who scored the Game 3 winner, felt "speechless" in front of a record-breaking crowd. That's the kind of energy that wins championships.
Montreal's been the better team all season, and the Victoire will be looking to reset after letting a two-goal lead slip away. But the Charge have momentum, the crowd behind them, and a season-long reputation for resilience that's carried them through one tight moment after another. Whether they're playing in Kanata next season or not, tonight's about winning now.