A Statistical Look at the 2025 PWHL Semifinal Matchups

We are on the cusp of the 2025 PWHL playoffs and in the blink of an eye we are going to know who the second Walter Cup winner in PWHL history is. The road to get to that point starts now as the Toronto Sceptres get ready for their revenge series versus the Minnesota Frost and the Montréal Victoire look for redemption after being swept last year as they play a first-time playoff team in the Ottawa Charge.

The two series are best-of-five which leaves a lot of room for the random/luck effect to play a part in what happens. We saw that last year with the top two seeds in Montréal and Toronto losing to the lower seeds. Both teams lost three straight games to be eliminated with Toronto at least winning two games first.

Maybe we shouldn’t have been surprised though at how those series played out. It’s possible that going into the 2024 PWHL playoffs we should have been more aware of how things were going to play out. No one could predict Boston would sweep Montréal with three straight overtime wins but perhaps the results of those games shouldn’t be too surprising considering how teams played during the regular season. Maybe it shouldn’t have been a surprise that two of three of the top even-strength goal differential teams made it to the Cup Final. Taking what we could learn from last season we’re going to find out if it can tell us potentially what to expect when coming into these playoffs.