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Ottawa Charge

Charge Must Dig Deep After Stunning Collapse Against Sirens

After a dominant start and a disastrous finish, the Ottawa Charge will need to dig deep if they want to keep their playoff hopes alive.

Charge Must Dig Deep After Stunning Collapse Against Sirens
Jade Downie-Landry celebrates her goal with teammates. (Photo Credit: PWHL)

For 40 minutes, the Ottawa Charge looked like a playoff-calibre team. But in the third, everything unraveled. The New York Sirens scored six unanswered goals to erase a three-goal deficit and hand Ottawa a stunning 6–3 loss at TD Place on Tuesday night, a result that sets multiple PWHL records and raises serious questions as the playoff race tightens.

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“We gotta dig and we gotta find another gear for ourselves and another level,” Charge head coach Carla MacLeod said postgame. “This is a great team. We see it so often. We saw it in two periods today. It’s staying the course for 60, and the consistency piece has been something we've talked a lot about this year—and it scorched us here tonight.”

Ottawa got on the board first with a shorthanded ‘jailbreak’ goal from hometown forward Rebecca Leslie, her first of the season.

Emily Clark added her ninth of the year and Brianne Jenner buried one late in the second to make it 3–0 for the home team. The Charge were in control, riding momentum in front of a loud crowd of 5,707.

Then came the collapse.

Just 1:25 into the third, Jessie Eldridge broke through for the Sirens, and the floodgates opened. Sarah Fillier scored twice—including one on the power play—to take over the league lead in scoring with 27 points. Jade Downie-Landry added two goals of her own, and Alex Carpenter’s empty-netter sealed a six-goal barrage that stunned the home fans.

The Sirens outshot Ottawa 18–0 in the third period, a PWHL record for shot differential in a single frame. It also marks the first time in league history that the Charge were held without a shot for an entire period.

“I don’t know that answer,” MacLeod admitted when asked what happened. “To see it transpire the way that it did in the third… it's hard to articulate.”

While the loss was historic in its scale, the message in the Ottawa room is to reset and regroup quickly with five games left in the regular season.

“I think it’s something that we’re used to as pros,” said Jenner. “We’re gonna take care of our bodies, get some good practices in, and be ready to hit the road for St. Louis.”

With the loss, Ottawa remains two points back of fourth-place Minnesota for the final playoff spot. New York’s win pulls them within three points of the Charge, with four games left on their schedule.

Rookie netminder Kayle Osborne picked up her second career win for the Sirens, while Ottawa’s Gwyneth Philips made 28 saves in the loss.

Despite the final score, Ottawa still won the season series 11–7 in points, but all of New York’s points came on Ottawa’s home ice, a sign that the Sirens are far from done.

The Charge return to action on Saturday, March 29, against Boston at the Enterprise Center in St. Louis, with valuable points and pride on the line.

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