Victoire choose to face Charge in playoffs, Sceptres will face Frost

The PWHL playoffs are officially set.

The top-seeded Montreal Victoire chose the Ottawa Charge to be their semifinal opponent on Sunday, locking the Toronto Sceptres and defending champion Minnesota Frost into their matchup.

Montreal won its first four regular-season meetings with Ottawa but dropped the last two. The Charge will make their postseason debut this spring, while the Victoire were swept out of the playoffs in three games by the Boston Fleet last year.

"Every team in this playoff round is going to be a fierce competitor," Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie said, per The Ice Garden's Melissa Burgess.

The bench boss added, "It's going to be even harder of a playoff series this year. The talent, the caliber, has elevated, even in one year of this league."

Cheverie also wouldn't get into why the Victoire picked the Charge over the Frost, but she said proximity played a role. The top-seeded team can choose the third or fourth seed to face in the best-of-five series.

Minnesota won the regular-season series against Toronto. The two clubs also met in the semifinals in the PWHL's inaugural campaign, and the Frost pulled off the reverse sweep to advance to the final versus Boston.

The playoffs kick off on Wednesday.