The Ottawa Charge were such a strong team in overtime all season. What has happened?

Maggie Flaherty (91) celebrates after scoring the overtime goal that gave the Victoire a 2-1 win over the Charge in Game 2 of the Walter Cup final on Saturday. Photo by Evan Buhler /Postmedia

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LAVAL, Que. — As soon as the buzzer sounded marking the end of the third period in Game 2 of the Walter Cup final, the Ottawa Charge knew that finding one more goal would be the difference between tying the series at one or falling into a rather daunting 2-0 hole in the best-of-five series.

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Overtime brought lots of back-and-forth chances for both the Charge and the Montreal Victoire as it looked like either team could be the one to come away with the right opportunity.

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But, for the second-straight game, the Charge found itself on the wrong end when the match entered sudden-death territory as the Victoire’s Maggie Flaherty found herself alone in the slot and sent a one-timer past netminder Gwyneth Philips to win the game 2-1 for Montreal.

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The Victoire also won Game 1 in extra time, by a 3-2 score.

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The back-to-back overtime losses have been a shocking turn of events for a Charge team that was so strong in extra time during the PWHL regular season, picking up eight wins in nine total appearances. One of those regular-season overtime wins came against the Victoire.

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Now the Charge has collected more overtime losses in the postseason than it did throughout the entire regular season.

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So what’s changed?

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Well, one major difference is in the distinct extra-time formats between regular season and playoffs. While regular-season overtime consists of 3-on-3 action before heading to a shootout if necessary, postseason overtime is 5-on-5 overtime and it continues until a winner is decided.

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It’s been a tight series between Ottawa and Montreal, and players on both sides aren’t given a lot of time and space. In the regular season, overtime may change that kind of hockey as players have more space with two less bodies on the ice for each team, but in the postseason it’s a continuation of the same game.

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And continuing this tight game meant a mistake ultimately cost the Charge on Saturday.

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The Victoire’s Maggie Flaherty (91) beats Charge netminder Gwyneth Philips (33) with a shot for the overtime winning goal in Game 2 of the PWHL Walter Cup final on Saturday. Photo by Evan Buhler /Postmedia

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Flaherty was wide open in the slot as about four Charge players collapsed into one corner of the ice to cover Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin with the puck. In true Poulin fashion, she fed a no-look pass to the slot, and the Victoire capitalized, causing the crowd at Place Bell to erupt in celebration.

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“At the end of the day, obviously, we probably put too many players in towards the puck,” Charge head coach Carla MacLeod said. “But our net-front (defender) is going to be net front, but she gets her feet wiped out from her from behind right before that play, and it’s pretty hard to get back to where you need to be.”

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It wasn’t as if Ottawa didn’t have its fair share of chances to close out the game. Just seconds before, Alexa Vasko found herself with the game on her stick in Ottawa’s best chance in overtime, but she was stonewalled by Victoire goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens.

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“All I could see was (Desbiens’) pad in that moment,” Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie said. “I couldn’t see her, so that means that Ottawa was doing something right on that play.”