No. 1 seed Montréal Victoire select No. 3 Minnesota Frost as semifinal opponent

The GIST: The regular season is in the books and the playoff matchups are officially set ahead of postseason puck drop on Thursday. That means it’s time for the league’s innovative rule book to really shine — let’s brush up.

🫨 No. 1 seed Montréal Victoire chooses No. 3 Minnesota Frost as semifinal opponent: Finishing atop the regular-season standings not only secures home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs — the No. 1 seed also earns the right to choose whether they’ll face the third or fourth seed in the best-of-five semis.

• Montréal picked the two-time defending champ Frost, a team they went undefeated against in the regular season, leaving the No. 2 Boston Fleet to face the No. 4 Ottawa Charge.

• Notably, the top seed was bounced by their semis opponent in the previous two PWHL seasons. Maybe the third time will be the charm.

⭐ Vancouver Goldeneyes land No. 1 pick in 2026 PWHL Draft: The expansion team Goldeneyes earned the right to draft generational talent Caroline Harvey after defeating Minnesota 4–3 in overtime during Saturday’s regular-season finale. Here’s why:

• The PWHL rewards effort from already-eliminated playoff teams, granting draft points for late-season wins as part of a system called the Gold Plan. Perhaps some other leagues should take note.