By The Canadian Press

Charge looking for consistent play as they fight for PWHL playoff spot

Feb 28, 2026 | 4:33 PM

OTTAWA — With 13 games remaining in the Professional Women’s Hockey League season, consistency will be the focus for the Ottawa Charge.

Following a 3-2 shootout loss to the first place Boston Fleet the Charge (4-5-1-7) sit fifth overall, one point back of the New York Sirens for the fourth and final playoff spot.

Ottawa has just six \games remaining at home, where they have a 4-1-2-2 record. The Charge have struggled on the road this season where they have yet to pick up a win in regulation, going 0-4-0-5.

If Ottawa hopes to return to the post-season they’ll need to find a way to play a better road game.

Following Wednesday’s home game against the Seattle Torrent the Charge will play three straight on the road, with two of the three against teams ahead of them in the standings. The key matchup will be their game against the Sirens on March 8.

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Head coach Carla MacLeod knows every game is going to be close. Seven of their 17 games this season have been decided by one goal.

“So, now it’s like how do you take advantage in those games, and how do you make those slim margins swing to your side,” she said. “And, you know, it’s a mentality at this point of the season. Now it’s a mentality like, who wants it the most, who’s willing to sort of sacrifice what they need to.”

MacLeod said the team will have to take on the mentality of “no one’s going to beat us.”

The Charge fell behind in the first period against the Fleet and had a flat second period, but came out strong in the third and scored a pair of goals to take the lead. An unfortunate deflection allowed the Fleet to tie the game and then win it in a shootout.

Regulation wins will be key for the Charge. With the PWHL’s three-point-system for wins before overtime, teams can put themselves out of contention fairly quickly or give themselves room to breathe.

The Charge’s playoff hopes have come down to the last game each of the past two seasons. During the league’s inaugural season, the Charge found themselves on the outside and last year they made it to the final.

Ottawa would like a bit more breathing room this season, but players know they’ll need to be at their best each game.

“I think that there’s been games this year where we’ve played really good hockey and, you know, finding that day in and day out,” said captain Brianne Jenner. ‘You know, it’s a very tight league so we have to execute on the details and on our game plan every night.”

Jenner added that success is likely going to come down to finding consistency.

Despite finding a way to come back Saturday afternoon the veteran wasn’t pleased with her team’s overall performance, calling it “pretty disorganized.”

“I thought the effort was there,” Jenner said. “But I think we have to kind of figure out a way to get back to a better overall complete game.’

Jenner refused to use a lengthy break to accommodate the Olympic Games as an excuse.

‘I think there’s just a lot of things that we had talked about as a team that we just didn’t execute at a high enough level, early enough in the game.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2026

Lisa Wallace, The Canadian Press