The Montreal Victoire are Walter Cup champions after they beat the Ottawa Charge 4-0 in Game 4 on Wednesday night to win the PWHL championship. This makes them the first Canadian team to win the Walter Cup since the league was founded three years ago.

No Canadian team has won a major professional hockey championship since the Montreal Canadiens captured the Stanley Cup in 1993, a staggering 33-year drought. Seven Canadian NHL teams have reached the finals since then, and all seven have failed.

Thanks to the Victoire, Canada finally has professional hockey champions again. And they did it in just the PWHL’s third season.

A champion crowned in Canada

On Wednesday night at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa, captain Marie-Philip Poulin and her teammates ended the longest championship drought in professional Canadian hockey history.

“It was very special,” said captain Marie-Philip Poulin after the victory. “It’s been a tough year, I’m not going to lie, since February. It was ups and downs, coming back to this group, just fighting through. It hasn’t been easy, injuries, sickness, a lot of things but we stuck together.”

Even Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney celebrated the achievement on social media: “Congratulations to the Montreal Victoire, the 2026 PWHL Walter Cup champions! An incredible and historic season – the Cup comes home for the first time.”

Captain clutch leads the way

Marie-Philip Poulin was named the Ilana Kloss Playoff MVP after tying for the postseason lead with eight points on two goals and six assists. The victory marked the end of a difficult nine-year journey for Poulin, who last won a league championship in Montreal in 2017.

“After the CWHL closed its doors there were two years where we didn’t really know what was going to happen,” Poulin reflected, speaking about the challenges women’s hockey faced before the PWHL launched.

Her teammates had nothing but praise for their captain. “She’s been our leader the whole year,” said alternate captain Erin Ambrose. “She’s the most unbelievable hockey player and the best hockey player to ever play this game. She deserves this more than anybody in the world.”

Minnesota defender Lee Stecklein, who faced Poulin countless times in international play, put it simply: “She’s one of the best of all-time. She’s always hard to play against, a great competitor, a great player, and finds a way to put that puck in the net.”

While Poulin led the way, the championship was won through extraordinary team effort and heart.

Abby Roque scored twice in Game 4, including the game-winning goal at 3:49 of the second period and a spectacular short-handed “jailbreak” goal in the third period. After the victory, Roque was emotional about what the team had overcome.

“Honestly, just so much love for this group,” Roque said. “I mean the things we have battled through these playoffs, it was just out of this world. The amount of heart on this team, I love everybody and I couldn’t be prouder.”

Poulin’s reaction to Roque’s shorthanded goal while she sat in the penalty box became an instant classic: “That jailbreak goal, unbelievable. Honestly, I think I peed a little in the penalty box. I was so excited. For them to come see me, was unbelievable. A lot of emotion there.”

Goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens made 23 saves to secure her second playoff shutout of the postseason. Poulin even insisted after the game that Desbiens should have won the MVP award instead of her, shaking her head and pointing at her goaltender as the award was announced.

Maggie Flaherty, who became the first player to win three Walter Cups (having won two with Minnesota Frost before joining Montreal), added a crucial insurance goal. “It’s one big family, it’s one of the closest teams I’ve ever been on, and there really is no one more deserving than this team to win this thing,” Flaherty said.

Montreal’s road to Walter Cup glory

Montreal’s path to the championship was dramatic from start to finish. The Victoire finished the regular season in first place with 62 points and a record 16 regulation wins.

In the semifinals, they faced the two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost. Despite being down in the series, Poulin delivered a clutch power-play goal in Game 5 that proved to be the winner, sending Montreal to their first Walter Cup Final.

“It’s very special,” Marie-Philip Poulin said after that semifinal victory. “We knew it wasn’t going to be easy. It was going to be a battle. We’re happy right now, but we’re not done yet.”

The finals against Ottawa featured incredible drama. In Game 1, Montreal’s Nicole Gosling tied the game with just 2.1 seconds left in regulation before Roque won it in overtime. Game 2 saw Poulin make a no-look pass from the corner to set up Flaherty for another overtime winner.

Game 4’s 4-0 shutout victory came in front of 12,362 screaming fans at the Canadian Tire Centre, with Montreal scoring three goals in the final 10 minutes to quiet the crowd and seal the championship.

What the NHL hasn’t accomplished in 33 years

While the PWHL celebrates its first Canadian champion after just three seasons, the NHL continues to wait. The Montreal Canadiens remain the last Canadian team to win the Stanley Cup, defeating the Los Angeles Kings 4-1 in June 1993.

That championship win for the Habs came on the 100th anniversary of the first awarding of the Stanley Cup in 1893. It’s now been 33 years since a Canadian NHL team has won hockey’s most famous trophy.

The 1993 Canadiens team came from behind after being down 2-0 to the Quebec Nordiques in the first round, ultimately claiming their 24th Stanley Cup in franchise history.

Now the PWHL, in only its third season of existence, has crowned its first Canadian champion.

The last six-year gap between Canadian Stanley Cup champions was between 1936 and 1941. The current drought is more than five times longer.

“Whatever team we had on the ice was a team we were able to win with, so it’s been absolutely amazing with this group,” Poulin said, summing up what made this Victoire team special.

Breaking through the Minnesota Dynasty

The victory was even more impressive considering Montreal had to defeat the Minnesota Frost in the semifinals. Minnesota had won the first two Walter Cup championships in league history, beating Ottawa in 2025 and Boston in 2024.

First-year head coach Kori Cheverie also became the first female coach in PWHL history to win the Walter Cup.

For Montreal, this championship is the culmination of years of perseverance through uncertainty. Poulin’s journey included the folding of the CWHL, two years without a professional women’s league, and dealing with injuries that kept her out of 10 of the final 11 regular-season games this season.

“She’s the person you want next to you in the hard moments,” said goaltender Desbiens about her captain. “She’s the person you want to fight with. She’s the person you want to battle for, and I think that’s what this team is going to do.”

As the PWHL continues to grow and expand, the Victoire have set the standard for what Canadian teams can achieve. The league is adding three new cities next season, building on the momentum of a championship that finally brought professional hockey’s ultimate prize back to Canada.

Meanwhile, NHL teams in Canada continue their pursuit of ending the longest championship drought in the sport’s modern history. The Montreal Victoire have proven that bringing a championship home to Canada is possible.

The question now is, when will an NHL team follow their lead?