In front of a raucous crowd of 6,104 at Place Bell, the Montreal Victoire defeated the Minnesota Frost 2-1 on Tuesday night in the decisive fifth game of their Professional Women’s Hockey League semifinal series.
For a franchise that had reached the playoffs in each of its first three seasons but had never advanced beyond the opening round, this victory marked a major breakthrough. Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie called it the biggest win in the organization’s history to date.
The top-seeded Victoire knocked out the two-time defending Walter Cup champions and, in doing so, guaranteed that the league will crown its first Canadian champion. Minnesota had been 6-0 in elimination games, and 2-0 in decisive Game 5s.
Catherine Dubois opened the scoring at 12:18 of the first period after being promoted to the top line alongside Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey. It was Dubois’ first goal of the playoffs and a timely reward for a player who had moved throughout the lineup during the season.
Minnesota tied the game in the second period when Samantha Cogan redirected a pass in the slot, setting the stage for another dramatic moment from Montreal’s captain.
Early in the third period in a game that had the refs keeping their whistles in their pockets, the Victoire earned their first power play of the night. As she has done so many times in her career, Poulin delivered. Erin Ambrose delivered the perfect pass and Poulin snapped it past Maddie Rooney at 3:06 to give Montreal the lead.
“Pou found another level tonight,” Cheverie said. “She was incredible. Pou gets a hard matchup every single night… and I can’t say enough great things about Pou and what she’s doing for our group right now.”
Montreal’s success was also built on the steady play of goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, who made 25 saves, including several crucial stops in the third period. One of her most memorable moments came in the opening period, when she lunged backward with her stick to keep the puck from crossing the goal line.
Desbiens credited her teammates for helping preserve the victory. “We had so many players contributing […] just knowing we can count on so many different players too, playing those minutes to do what it takes. For Willow [Kaitlin Willougby] to cover her player, just follow her, make it hard for them to get the puck for people to battle, to make sure I could see the pucks, all those things. There’s a lot of things that went right for us tonight.”
Cheverie said the difference in this year’s team is its resilience. “Even if we were down a goal, we never kind of felt out of it,” she said. “There was a lot of belief. The players have taken over a lot of the conversation, and that’s a great team to coach.”
Tuesday’s game was postponed 24 hours by the league for player-safety reasons due to an illness through the Victoire locker room.
“We showed a lot of resilience,” Poulin said. “We had contribution up and down the lineup […] so it’s really for us to know that we can rely on each other on every single member of this organization. Obviously, we’re happy right now, but we’re not done yet.”
The Victoire will now face Ottawa Charge in a best-of-five Walter Cup final. Game 1 is set for Thursday at Place Bell with puck drop at 7pm. TSN and RDS will be broadcasting the games in Canada, while games will be available on YouTube and ION in the USA.
Full Highlights
