No top ranked team has picked their opening round opponent and won in the PWHL's first two seasons. The Montreal Victoire, who broke script and picked the third place Minnesota Frost as their opening round playoff opponents hope to change that.

Minnesota enter as the back-to-back Walter Cup champions and were the third place team in the regular season. Montreal chose Minnesota rather than selecting fourth place Ottawa who needed a point on the final night of the 2025-26 regular season to qualify for the postseason at all.

It means Montreal will open their 2026 Walter Cup run May 2 at Place Bell against Minnesota for a 2pm ET puck drop.

Boston will get Ottawa on April 30 at the Tsongas Center in Lowell at 7pm ET. Both are best-of-five series.

Game two between Montreal and Minnesota will take place May 5 at Place Bell, with Boston hosting game two of their series on May 2 at 7pm, which will become the second half of a PWHL playoff double header that day.

Montreal has qualified for the PWHL playoffs in each of the league's three-seasons, but has yet to advance beyond the opening round.

The Boston Fleet advanced to the Walter Cup finals in year one before falling to Minnesota, while the Ottawa Charge were the Walter Cup finalists last season.