Double-overtime win sends Ottawa Charge to second straight Walter Cup final

Ottawa Charge player Brooke Hobson tries to score on Boston Fleet goalie Aerin Frankel during the first period at the Canadian Tire Centre on Sunday. Photo by Tony Caldwell /Postmedia

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Michela Cava emerged the hero for the Ottawa Charge after scoring the game-winner in double-overtime to send the Charge to its second straight Walter Cup final after a high-scoring Game 4 of the PWHL semifinal series against the Boston Fleet.

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For Boston, the defeat marks an unexpected early exit for a highly skilled team that entered the postseason with high hopes of a Walter Cup championship after finishing the regular season with a dominant 21 wins (16 in regulation and five in overtime) in 30 games.

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Ottawa will have to wait until Monday night to learn its Walter Cup opponent, when the Montreal Victoire and Minnesota Frost are set to face off in a winner-takes-all Game 5.

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It was really only a matter of time before a game in this Charge-Fleet series went to overtime, after all four regular-season meetings between these two teams needed extra time to decide the final outcome. Ottawa came away with the win on three of those occasions.

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Ottawa started the game strong and has found the opening marker in every game in this series, this time just seven minutes into the first period as a shot from Fanuza Kadirova deflected off the stick of rookie Sarah Wozniewicz in front of the net on the power play.

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The goal marked the first time since the opening game of the series that the Charge has managed to convert on the power play, which had been previously held silent through nine consecutive attempts dating back to Game 1.

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The Charge then doubled its lead in the opening minutes of the second period when hometown hero Rebecca Leslie found the puck in the crease off a dribbling rebound feed from Brianne Jenner. Coming off an incredibly productive regular season, both Jenner and Leslie earned their first postseason points on the play.

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Suddenly now 2-0, things looked grim for the Fleet. But did you really think Boston would let its season end that easily?

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If you blinked, you would have missed it. Open your eyes again, and you’d find an entirely different hockey game.

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The Fleet opened the offensive floodgates with three goals within just one minute and 27 seconds, off the sticks of Shay Maloney, Megan Keller and Sophie Shirley, to quickly turn a 2-0 deficit into a 3-2 lead with its season on the line.

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The second goal in the sequence came on the Fleet power play following a roughing call assessed to Gabbie Hughes, marking the first time Boston has scored on the player advantage in this series.

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The defensive collapse could have easily taken the wind out of Ottawa’s sails. But the Charge had more left in the tank.

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Just six minutes later, Ottawa found the equalizer as Brooke Hobson buried a rebound off a Kadirova shot to tie the game at three. And the score remained that way through the end of regulation, bringing the game into next-goal-wins territory.

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It was the first time all series that the Fleet managed to get multiple goals past Charge netminder Gwyneth Philips, but that’s not to say she wasn’t still exceptional in this game, making 43 saves on an astounding 46 shots as the Fleet forecheck peppered her from all sides.

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