Five takeaways from Week 10 of the PWHL: Ottawa climbs, Montreal declines, and Minnesota shines

There weren’t many games in Week 10 of the PWHL season, but we had plenty of drama and storylines to parse over.

This also happens to be the last stretch of games we have before the three-week international break thanks to the 2024 IIHF World Championship, this year taking place in Utica, N.Y.

Here are this week’s takeaways for Daily Faceoff.

1. Ottawa is climbing the ladder of success

I’ve been saying it repeatedly: Ottawa is the hardest-working team in the league, and at some point, things have to go their way. You don’t lose six of 18 games in overtime or a shootout without dealing with some bad luck, so at some point, it had to turn. And boy has it ever.

I thought Ottawa gave Toronto their best competition of the season last Saturday. If you were lucky enough to watch, you’d have seen Natalie Spooner score both her league-leading 14th and 15th goals of the season, putting Toronto up 2-0. But Ottawa responded with one from Daryl Watts with five seconds to go in the second period, and the comeback was on. 

Ottawa would score three straight to start the third period, and while Sarah Nurse would add one for Toronto, Watts would score an empty netter, her third of the game and first hat trick of her PWHL career, giving Ottawa the 5-3 win and snapping Toronto’s 11-game winning streak.

While Ottawa holds the fourth and final playoff spot, what’s to stop them from climbing past Montreal? Plenty of time to carve your place in the league.

2. Ottawa’s best are playing their best

Winning three of their last four games, Ottawa has gone from one of the lower-ranked teams in the league to one that’s comfortably in a playoff spot with five games to go.

A massive reason for that has been the improved play of players like Watts, Brianne Jenner, Emily Clark, and netminder Emerance Maschmeyer, who have been massive through the month of March.

Watts, 24, has five goals and three assists since March 5 and has a case for being the best player in the league in the last month. Every shift, it feels like she’s buzzing, like she’ll create something out of nothing.

The 28-year-old Clark has points in five of her last six games; Jenner has seven points in her last four games, including three against Toronto, and Maschmeyer has stepped up in the last few games, including a shutout in a 3-0 win over New York last week and some gave-saving stops in the third period of their win over Toronto.

Credit goes to head coach Carla MacLeod, who has taken this young group and built something special as we approach the end of the league’s inaugural season. Now the question is: how much damage can they do in the playoffs?

3. Montreal on the decline

Something isn’t right in Montreal’s water. They’ve been without captain Marie-Philip Poulin for three games, and the team has lost four straight, dating back to March 8.

Even without Poulin, this team has plenty of talent, but they haven’t played like it. Erin Ambrose only has two assists in her last five games. Maureen Murphy has has one goal and two assists in March. Laura Stacey has just as much production this month. Jillian Dempsy and Kristin O’Neill each have only one goal this season.

Ann-Renee Desbiens and Elaine Chuli have been fantastic this year, and it’s become clear that any postseason success Montreal has will largely be from standing on the shoulders of their two netminders.

But before they even think about the playoffs, they need to step it up in these last five regular season games. Yes, Poulin may be healthy after the international break, but it might take more than just the best player in the world to snap out of this funk.

4. Minnesota ain’t nothing to mess with

We’ve been saying it again and again over the last few weeks, but it’s official: Minnesota is so back. I mean, they’ve won five straight, so how can they not be?

This week we saw another great performance from Nicole Hensley, who stopped 21 of 23 shots, then stopped three of four shots in the shootout to seal the 3-2 win over Montreal.

Grace Zumwinkle is one of the best players in the game right now, Kendall Coyne Schofield has six points in six games and Taylor Heise, the odds-on favorite for Rookie of the Year, has five points in her last four games.

They’re one point behind Toronto for first in the standings. With five games to go, there’s a chance they’ll be the ones to pick their opponent in round one of the playoffs.

5. Credit to Toronto for their 11-game winning streak

Some quick facts about Toronto’s 11-game winning streak:

• Toronto played from behind just once: a nearly 11-minute span during their game last Wednesday against Boston.

• Toronto outscored their opponents 35-13 during the streak, with netminder Kristen Campbell recording three shutouts during that span.

• They beat every team in the league during that span.

• Eleven games equals 46 percent of their 24-game season, lasting from Jan. 26 to March 20.

Just an absurd amount of fantastic hockey played on their behalf. They’re still No. 1 in the league standings, but Minnesota is right behind them, and if Montreal can string together some wins to close out the season, there’s a chance they can sneak in there.

Will they look as good in May as they did through February and March? We’ll have to wait and see.