The PWHL’s most chaotic tradition continues: Top seed chooses its fate

Marisa Ingemi, Special to USA TODAYTue, April 28, 2026 at 10:06 AM UTC

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Welcome to the most chaotic postseason selection process in sports, where even the matchup itself can become bulletin board material.

The top-seeded Montreal Victoire will open their Pro Women’s Hockey League playoff run against the Minnesota Frost on Saturday. Simple, right?

Not quite.

Four PWHL clubs make the postseason. Montreal finished in first place and Minnesota in third, meaning the Victoire will not face the lowest remaining seed, despite earning the top spot.

That’s because they actually chose to face the “better” team.

It’s part postseason hockey, part reality TV.

“It's something that's completely out of our control,” Minnesota forward Kendall Coyne-Schofield said of having to play the top seed despite finishing in the third spot. “We were more looking at do we leave this day to go to Boston, or this day to go to Montreal?

“When we got the news, we were like, alright, what's the schedule? And so we start preparing for Montreal, because that's where we're going, that's where we're told to go, and it's out of our control. So, I think that's our mindset, and we get ready to work.”

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Under PWHL rules, the No. 1 seed selects its semifinal opponent from the third- and fourth-place teams. The second-place team, in this case, Boston, faces the remaining club, Ottawa.

No other professional sports league in North America allows a top seed to choose its playoff opponent. Coaches often insist that matchups don’t matter, but that’s easier to say when the opponent isn’t handpicked.

When a team makes that choice, the stakes feel different. Notably, each top seed that’s selected its opponent over the past two seasons has gone on to lose the series. Montreal made a similar choice last year, selecting the third seed over fourth-seeded Ottawa, and lost in four games.

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“There’s no team in this league that is easy to beat, that's for sure,” Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie said on Monday. “Every single game, I feel like, has the potential to go into overtime, and we, as a collective here in Montreal, we decided to continue with our internal process of where we were at, different things that we looked at, and, you know, we landed on Minnesota, and we're looking forward to that opportunity. Every team brings a different opportunity.”

Cheverie declined to explain why her team, again, chose the third seed or whether Ottawa presented a tougher matchup. Instead, Montreal (16-2-6) will face the back-to-back defending champions and top-scoring team in the PWHL, now with added motivation after being labeled, implicitly, the more favorable opponent.

“It doesn't really matter that much for us,” Minnesota Frost head coach Ken Klee said. “We knew we were going to be going on the road, so, they're a great challenge, and we're just excited to get going.”

The Victoire are in the playoffs for the third straight season, finishing first for second consecutive year. This season, the Victoire won all four games in their head-to-head season series against the Frost (13-5-9), including two overtime victories. They went 3-1 against the Charge (9-1-12).

There is a 24-hour selection window to select a playoff opponent and the league said it aims to create rivalries and reward the top regular-season team. Playoff semifinals and finals are best-of-five series. Montreal finished with 62 points, after winning its final regular-season game in a shootout, and in a tie for first with Boston (16-4-5) in the standings. But the Victoire held the tiebreaker, having more wins – 22 – than the Fleet’s 21.

The Fleet will get an “easier” matchup with the Ottawa Charge, who finished as the fourth seed.

“To be honest, I haven't really analyzed it too much,” said Ottawa forward Brianne Jenner of Montreal picking Minnesota. “They probably had their reasons for the pick that they made. I think we prepared regardless. We're gonna have to go through a really good team if we want to make it to the finals.”

Players and coaches may downplay it, but beating a team that chose you as its opponent carries a little extra edge.

At the very least, it raises the drama.

“It’s their choice,” Klee said. “It's a tough choice, having the choice to pick, our league is so close, and there's so much competitive balance that I don't think there's any right or wrong choice for them. They made their choice, which is fine with us.”

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Welcome to the PWHL playoffs, where the top seed picks its postseason opponent

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