Sceptres’ season comes to an end in apt fashion

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Published Apr 25, 2026  •  3 minute read

Ottawa Charge goaltender Gwyneth Philips deals with a screen made by Jesse Compher of the Toronto Sceptres during a PWHL game in Ottawa on April 25, 2026. Ottawa won 3-0 to qualify for the PWHL playoffs. Photo by Josh Kim /Ottawa Charge

For the first time in three seasons, the PWHL playoffs will take place without a Toronto team participating.

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The Ottawa Charge sealed Toronto’s fate with a 3-0 win Saturday in Ottawa before a sellout crowd of 8,306 that basically underscored the Sceptres’ primary issue all season.

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They just did not have enough goal-scoring.

This one had nothing to do with effort or want-to. From the opening faceoff, that was evident from both sides. But there’s no getting around the fact that even playing at the top of their game, putting the puck in the net was an issue for this team, and has been one all season.

Toronto finished the season with a league-worst 51 goals. Over 30 games, that’s an average of 1.7 goals a game.

Only the inaugural PWHL Boston team, which scored an average of 2.1 goals a game in a 24-game season, was even close to being this goal-starved.

Full credit to Ottawa’s defence and goaltender Gwyneth Philips in particular, who turned aside 34 shots to shut Toronto out. It was the second game in a row in which Toronto failed to register a goal, and the seventh time all season.

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From the very first get-together in training camp, Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan cautioned that scoring would not come easily for his group, which lost the likes of Sarah Nurse and Hannah Miller in free agency and then Julia Gosling in the expansion draft, along with all the rest of the 2025 Toronto draft class not named Raygan Kirk.

On Saturday, Ottawa struck first off a scramble in front of Kirk. Kirk, as she has done with consistency since the Olympic break, made the initial save on a point shot from Michela Cava. The rebound came directly out in front of Kirk but from there got ping ponged off three sticks before the puck found its way to Fanuza Kadirova off to the side of the net.

Even then, it wasn’t a sure thing with Ella Shelton sprawled across Kirk’s crease trying to help her goalie, but the puck found its way in and Toronto’s uphill battle got a lot tougher.

It became all but impossible, particularly the way Philips was handling her business in the Ottawa net, when Sarah Wozniewicz was sent in alone on a nice feed from Brianne Jenner and beat Kirk with a heady deke to make it 2-0.

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The Sceptres did not give up, even pulling their goalie with more than five minutes to go in order knowing only a regulation win would do them any good.

The battle was there right to the final whistle, but an empty-netter with just over four minutes to play sealed the deal.

Fittingly it came off the stick of former Sceptres forward Alexa Vasko. It was her second goal of the season.

The Sceptres had the early opportunities, but Philips stood tall, as she has for most of the season.

First, Philips stopped Sceptres captain Blayre Turnbull on a breakaway a handful of seconds into the game, and then before another minute had elapsed, turned aside Maggie Connors, who got in behind the Ottawa defence.

Ottawa appeared to have scored in the first period but the goal was called back when replay revealed the puck hit the post and came back out without entering the net as one of the on-ice officials believed.

There was no shortage of jump in Toronto’s lineup. The Sceptres carried the majority of the play for the first two periods despite going into the third down 1-0.

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Toronto had the edge in shots on net as well outshooting Ottawa 30-25 through two periods as well, eventually outshooting Ottawa 41-31 in the game but as was the case a couple of weeks ago in Toronto, the Sceptres had no answer for Philips.

The Ottawa netminder is impervious to pressure, crowding, a volume of shots, or whatever else the Sceptres tried against her to no avail.

Ottawa will now await the call from the first-place finisher – either Boston or Montreal depending on the final game of the schedule late Saturday in Seattle – who will choose either the third or fourth place finisher to open their playoffs against.

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