Comments / New

Victoire vs. Frost recap & highlights: Montreal retakes top spot with a home win

Abby Boreen scores twice on her former team in a win at Place Bell.

Posted on by Nathan Ni
Abby Boreen scored two goals in Montreal’s win. (Photo by Arianne Bergeron/PWHL)

After a six-game road swing that included stops in Vancouver, Seattle, and Denver as part of the Takeover Tour, the Montreal Victoire returned to Place Bell for the first time since December 4. The team made its homecoming a victorious one, reclaiming top spot in the PWHL standings with a 4-2 win over the Minnesota Frost.

Entering the game, Montreal was without forward Laura Stacey, who exited the team’s last match with an apparent leg injury. However, they did activate defender Amanda Boulier off long-term injured reserve, placing defender Catherine Daoust on the team’s reserve list to make space.

As to be expected from the second matchup between the league’s top two teams in less than a week, the game opened as a cagey affair. Minnesota held the territorial advantage, with Montreal counter-punching on the break. As the first five minutes drew to a close, Victoire defender Anna Wilgren got tangled up with the Frost’s Sophie Jaques, losing an edge and slamming hard into the boards. To add insult to injury, while playing four-on-five as Wilgren laboured to return to the fray, Cayla Barnes was whistled for tripping, sending Minnesota to the power play.

The sequence may have galvanized Montreal, who shut down the Frost while keeping Nicole Hensley on her toes twice through attacking forays by Mikayla Grant-Mentis and Marie-Philip Poulin. As the game returned to even strength, Montreal gradually started pushing the Frost toward their own goal, reaping their just reward two minutes later.

Poulin started the rush, snapping a cross-ice breakout pass to Erin Ambrose. Ambrose, not to be outdone, slung the puck from right-to-left, banking it off the near boards for a waiting Jennifer Gardiner to take in stride. Driving deep into Frost territory, Gardiner snapped a laser feed backdoor, where Golden Gopher alumnus and former Minnesota player Abby Boreen was waiting to tap it in for the first goal of the game.

From there, Montreal seized the initiative, and not even a penalty from an (arguably) overzealous hit by Poulin could stop their momentum. The Victoire closed out the first frame with a 9-6 lead on the shot counter and a 5-1 edge in scoring chances.

They opened the second as if the first never ended, pursuing the Frost all over the ice and forcing turnovers shift after shift. Minnesota fended off two burgundy waves, but on the third, Hensley could only kick Alexandra Labelle’s shot right onto the waiting stick of Claire Dalton. The Yale product made no mistake, giving the Victoire a 2-0 advantage.

Things soon went from bad to worse for Minnesota as Montreal continued to push. The Frost did themselves no favours, spotting the Victoire a five-on-three advantage. First, a forechecking Kelly Pannek boarded Kristin O’Neill in Montreal’s zone, then Maggie Flaherty inexplicably covered the puck with her hand on the penalty kill after losing her stick. Forty-four seconds later, Le Capitaine had the puck in the back of the net.

Up three, Montreal put on a clinic in suppression hockey, with Ann-Renée Desbiens only making her first save of the period with 8:31 remaining on the clock. When Frost defenceman Mae Batherson was whistled for interference shortly after, most in the crowd probably saw it as an opportunity to put the game to bed.

But good teams are good teams because they don’t go away quietly, and the Frost used an uneventful penalty kill to grab a foothold back in the game. One shot became two, then three, then four. Finally, with 2:38 to go in the period, Kendall Coyne-Schofield deposited a rebound from a Jaques point shot to get the Frost on the scoreboard.

Where Montreal carried their momentum across the first intermission, Minnesota now did likewise across the second break. With 8:31 remaining in the second period, the shot clock read 17-7 in favour of the Victoire. With 15:05 remaining in the third, after Montreal killed off Catherine Dubois’s two minute tripping minor, that advantage was down to 19-17. More importantly, the scoreboard still read 3-1.

Once again, a successful penalty kill helped the team on their heels get back into the game, and Montreal received an second opportunity to put the game away when Katy Knoll brought down a cutting Dubois in the offensive zone. This time, they made no mistake. An Ambrose point shot ricochetied off Dubois’s stick, off the post, and softly landed in the blue ice behind Hensley — right for Boreen to clean up for her second of the night.

Minnesota would grab a consolation goal on the power play courtesy of Michela Cava, but any thought of a remarkable comeback was effectively ended when Jaques hooked Boreen as she cleared a rebound from the Victoire defensive zone with 3:02 remaining. Amid the “Olés” of the home crowd, Montreal answered a 4-2 loss to the Frost in Denver with a 4-2 win in Laval.

With the win, the Victoire once again sit atop the PWHL standings, level on points with Minnesota, but with two fewer games played and one additional win in regulation. Both teams will now prepare for games against the Ottawa Charge: the Frost at home on Tuesday, the Victoire in Quebec City on Sunday.

Full Highlights:

Support Habs Eyes On The Prize by signing up for Norton 360

LOGIN SIGN UP

Talking Points