The Montreal Victoire extended their undefeated streak at Place Bell with a 4–0 win over the Minnesota Frost on Sunday afternoon.
They have not lost at their primary home venue, going 7-0 to start the season. The only game they have lost at home this season was at the Bell Centre.
Depth scoring has been key in recent games, and Saturday afternoon was no different. Maggie Flaherty opened the scoring just after the 13-minute mark of the first period, firing one in from the blue line. Just 71 seconds later, Dara Greig capitalized on a rebound to make it 2–0.
The middle frame was scoreless, but Montreal pulled away in the third. Maureen Murphy notched her third of the season, and the final blow came on a jailbreak goal from Laura Stacey, assisted by Marie-Philip Poulin, who returned to the lineup after missing a game due to a big hit sustained during the Olympics.
The Victoire stifled the Frost offensively, limiting them to just four shots in the first period, five in the second, and eight in the third.
Head coach Kori Cheverie praised her team’s defensive commitment.
“It’s kind of nice when these things happen where we focused a lot on defence recently, just in our video sessions, and the structure that we want to have defensively, which will often create the offence that you want. And they committed to it tonight, and if it wasn’t executed perfectly, we could see that they were trying to implement some of the things that we were talking about.”
“We’ve got to be proud to keep [Minnesota] off the score sheet and to keep them to the limited chances that they did have,” she said.
With Erin Ambrose on LTIR following an injury sustained at the Olympics, rookie Tamara Giaquinto was named to the active roster. Cheverie spoke highly of her development:
“We just keep giving her a little bit more, a little bit more […] and she just continues to grow. She’ll still make mistakes — she’s a young player — but her trajectory has shone through in the last couple of games.”
Keeping opponents off the scoreboard is also easier when Ann-Renée Desbiens is in net. Facing 17 shots, she recorded her fourth shutout of the season. The season she’s played 15 games, and has only let in 16 goals.
As mentioned, the Victoire remain undefeated at Place Bell, and Laura Stacey credited the fans:
“The fans are incredible here. We just talked about it — we’re looking onto that ice, and it’s a packed house, it’s loud. Sometimes you can’t even hear what Kori is telling us to do on the bench, but they really are that extra player for us […] Honestly, it’s those little moments that make a huge difference. We all feel it, and we get fired up to come and play in front of our crowd and the people who support us.”
Montreal now sits first in the standings, though Boston trails by one point with two games in hand.
The Victoire will face the Toronto Sceptres next Tuesday at 7 p.m. Toronto enters the matchup on a two-game winning streak following a successful West Coast trip, earning wins over the Seattle Torrent and the Vancouver Goldeneyes.
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