Your guide to the Boston Fleet in the PWHL playoffs: How they got there, how they match up, and how to watch

PWHL

The Fleet open the PWHL playoffs on Thursday in Lowell.

Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel led the PWHL with eight shutouts this season. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

The Boston Fleet will face the Ottawa Charge in the first round of the Professional Women’s Hockey League postseason, opening play on Thursday at the Tsongas Center in Lowell.

It’s the second playoff appearance for Boston in the first three seasons of the PWHL. Boston fell to Minnesota in the 2024 Walter Cup Finals, and missed the playoffs last season.

If you’re just getting into the PWHL, here’s what to know about the postseason — known as the Walter Cup Playoffs — and the Fleet as they chase the 2026 title.

What is the Walter Cup? What is the playoff format?

The end-of-season prize in the PWHL is known as the Walter Cup, named after Mark Walter. Walter, the billionaire owner of the Dodgers, is the owner of the PWHL (the league and all its eight teams).

The Walter Cup was introduced in 2024, when the Minnesota Frost won the league’s first title. Minnesota repeated as champs last season. They enter this year’s playoffs as the No. 3 seed.

The Montreal Victoire (16-6-2-6) are the top seed in the postseason. By virtue of finishing No. 1, Montreal got to choose its playoff opponent. The Victoire chose Minnesota. Ottawa clinched the final playoff berth on Saturday with a 3-0 win over Toronto in its final regular-season game.

Both series are best of five, with the higher seed hosting Games 1, 2, and 5 (if necessary).

Megan Keller anchors a Fleet defense that only allowed 45 goals over 30 games this season. – Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

Boston Fleet playoff schedule

The Fleet open the playoffs on Thursday in Lowell. Ottawa will play its games at Canadian Tire Centre, home of the NHL’s Senators. The Charge typically play at TD Place, which holds just under 10,000 fans. The Charge sold out the Canadian Tire Centre with more than 17,000 fans in attendance at a game earlier this season.

Here’s the full schedule:

Game 1, Thursday, April 30: Ottawa at Boston, Tsongas Center, 7 p.m.

Game 2, Saturday, May 2: Ottawa at Boston, Tsongas Center, 7 p.m.

Game 3, TBD: Boston at Ottawa, Canadian Tire Centre, TBD

Game 4, TBD: Boston at Ottawa, Canadian Tire Centre, TBD

Game 5, TBD: Ottawa at Boston, TBD, TBD

How to watch the Boston Fleet in the PWHL playoffs

Boston Fleet playoff games will air on NESN or NESN+. You can also watch on the league’s YouTube channel for free.

The Walter Cup Finals will air nationally on Ion and on YouTube.

The Montreal-Minnesota series will air on Amazon Prime Video.

How the Fleet got back to the playoffs

In the first year under head coach Kris Sparre, the Fleet got out to the best start in PWHL history with five straight wins to open the season.

The coach collected feedback from his players before the start of the season about how they wanted to play, resulting in an identity centered around being suffocating, gritty, and playing in-your-face hockey.

That lent itself to spending nearly the entire 2025-26 campaign at the top of the standings, and Boston finished the season tied with Montreal for first place with a record 62 points in 30 games (16-5-4-5).

The Fleet lost just one game at Tsongas Center and went 9-1-2-3 at home, including four games at Agganis Arena, one at TD Garden, and two in non-PWHL markets as part of the league’s Takeover Tour.

Captain Megan Keller, who led the PWHL in points by a defender (7-15–22) this season, was among the Fleet’s seven Olympians representing five countries at the Milan Games in February. Keller scored the golden goal in Team USA’s overtime win over Canada in the gold-medal game.

Fleet goaltender Aerin Frankel, also a key member of Team USA, recorded a PWHL record eight shutouts in her 26 appearances this season and is among the frontrunners for both MVP and Goaltender of the Year.

The Northeastern product was a game-changer for the Fleet, who endured a streak of 12 one-goal games from late December to mid-March and came away with wins in eight of those games.

Jessie Eldridge has seven goals and three assists since coming to the Fleet in a March 16 trade. – Danielle Parhizkaran/Globe Staff

In need of a scoring jolt late in the season, the Fleet made a trade-deadline swap with Seattle to acquire forward Jessie Eldridge, a proven scorer. She made an immediate impact, recording seven goals and three assists in 11 games with Boston.

The Fleet have also reaped the benefits of a stacked rookie class, led by Rookie of the Year favorite Haley Winn. The second pick in this year’s draft, Winn leads all first-year defenders with five goals and 14 assists. Boston College product Abby Newhook (7-7–14) is fifth in the league in rookie scoring.

How the Charge and Fleet match up

Three storylines to watch in the first round:

Two Northeastern alums battle it out in net

Charge and US Olympic goaltender Gwyneth Philips, shown making a stop on her former Northeastern teammate, the Fleet’s Alina Müller, during a PWHL game on Feb. 28, is one of many top stars on Ottawa. *– Spencer Colby*

Boston’s first-round matchup features two of the premiere goaltenders in the PWHL — both of whom played college hockey at Northeastern.

The Fleet’s Aerin Frankel and the Charge’s Gwyneth Philips played three years together for the Huskies, with Philips serving as Frankel’s backup until the latter graduated in 2022. They’ve also played together on the US national team and won a gold medal at the Olympics with Frankel as the starter.

Frankel recorded a PWHL record eight shutouts this season and posted a 1.17 goals-against average in 26 appearances, good for second in the league. Philips had three shutouts and a 2.12 GAA while facing nearly 200 more shots than Frankel (844 for Philips, 662 for Frankel) in 28 games.

Get ready for bonus hockey

That goaltending matchup lends itself to plenty of bonus hockey.

The Charge won three of the four matchups between these teams this season, and all four went beyond regulation — two ended in a shootout, and one in overtime.

The Fleet’s sole win against Ottawa came with a 3-2 shootout decision on Feb. 28, and the Charge won the most recent meeting in overtime, 2-1, on Wednesday.

Defense wins championships

The Fleet and Charge have scored at a similar clip this season, but Boston’s defense sets it apart.

Boston scored 74 goals in the regular season but allowed just 45, second in the league behind Montreal’s 41. Ottawa, meanwhile, has 71 goals for and 73 goals against, making the Charge the only team in the playoffs with a negative goal differential.

On top of Frankel’s dominance in net, Boston’s defense is anchored by Keller and Winn, both of whom are in the running for PWHL Defender of the Year honors. They lead the league in average time on ice and are two of the top three defenders in the league by points.

But the Fleet will have to contend with Ottawa’s lethal offensive duo in Brianne Jenner and Rebecca Leslie. Jenner (12-14–26) is fourth in the league in scoring, while Leslie (14-9–23) is tied for fifth.

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