When the red double-decker bus taking the Montreal Victoire from the Verdun Auditorium turned on Ste-Catherine street, Victoire goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens was at the front of the bus, eager to see what awaited them. What she saw, down the famous street no stranger to parades celebrating professional hockey teams, was a sea of people. So many that in her own words, she couldn’t even see pavement.
That’s when the 32-year-old goaltender, known for her calm, stoic, unflappable, and composed demeanour on the ice that makes her one of the best goaltenders in the world, reached for her sunglasses.
Not because of the sun that fittingly shone down on the Walter Cup champions and their fans on a perfect Spring day in the city, but because what she saw brought her to tears.
“Never in my wildest dreams could I have hoped to win a championship in a professional league, even less in Montreal in front of my family, my friends, my province,” said Desbiens, who at one point after graduating from university had decided to retire because of a lack of professional options.
Many players have dreamed of winning a championship, most Victoire players have done so in some capacity over their hockey careers, but this, having what the City of Montreal estimated as 20,000 fans turn out to help celebrate quite frankly set a new standard and gave the team an unforgettable moment.
“This is a parade you’d see on TV,” said captain Marie-Philip Poulin. “You see it in the NHL with the Stanley Cup, you dream to take part in it. To see the people here today is absolutely incredible.”
The team boarded their bus at the Verdun Auditorium, their home base, before going down Wellington street, one of the oldest and most historical streets in the city especially outside of Old Montreal. The team didn’t officially announce it, but the street’s association invited fans to welcome the champions. The mayor of Verdun, Céline-Audrey Beauregard, was biking alongside the team’s bus according to Desbiens, and there was a nice welcome for fans there even before the official portion on Ste-Catherine.
“To see this online, to see this at games it’s incredible to see it in person is magical,” said Victoire forward Catherine Dubois. “We had no expectations. We got on the bus and were like it will be fun but as soon as we got on the bus, there were people waiting for us. As athletes it’s not always easy, there are harder moments, there are happier moments, there are ups and downs and we’re really lucky to have the support of the fans.”
You can’t say it was a dream come true, because it wasn’t even something they ever imagined. Certainly not as kids, and perhaps not even five years ago when the championship they just won didn’t exist.
“It hits the heart here today,” said forward Laura Stacey. “We dreamed about playing professionally. We always dreamed of playing hockey for a living but we never dreamed about this. A parade with this many fans, bringing the Walter Cup to Canada, to Montreal, this is something we’re going to remember for the rest of our lives.”
The first Walter Cup celebration in Canada was ironically in the same city as the last Stanley Cup celebration in Canada. Montreal has always set the standard for supporting women’s hockey when given the opportunity. The city has set a world attendance record for a women’s hockey game at the Bell Centre in 2024, and has the regular season attendance record in the CWHL, PHF, and PWHL. Now it is setting the new standard for Walter Cup celebrations.
“It’s beyond what I imagined,” Poulin said. “We all had images in our head but when we got on the bus to see the people who came out and followed us on the bus, it was a crowd full of love, full of energy, for them to take the time to come and cheer for us, we feel the wave of love and appreciate it.”
“We couldn’t have had a better day,” said head coach Kori Cheverie. “The girls were saying ‘this is one of the best days of our lives’, Montreal showed up for us, it’s amazing.”
Desbiens and Poulin have both won Clarkson Cups before, but this was a wildly different experience. When Poulin won the Clarkson Cup in 2017, the celebration was a small press conference in Brossard after a Canadiens practice. While the atmosphere throughout the Quartier des Spectacles, where the entire organization took the stage, was joyous, you could tell that both players, plus other veterans like Abby Roque, Laura Stacey, and Erin Ambrose also spent time reflecting on what was happening, taking time to soak it all in.
“There have been things I have been pretty proud of in my life, but this is one of the coolest days if not the coolest.” said Ambrose, talking over a chant of ‘Lets Go Victoire’ so loud she had to stop several times to point out how loud it was, even asking for a head count. “Other than the night of winning, this is the most monumental day I’ve ever experienced in my life.”
“The streets are packed, this is way, way, way more than we could have ever expected. I’m so proud to play in Montreal,” said Stacey.
While Desbiens and Poulin are Quebecers, the third player to sign as a foundational player was coming into a situation as a relative outsider. Before signing with the Victoire, Stacey had lived in the city for several years but almost didn’t want to sign with a team before the inaugural PWHL draft because she didn’t want a contract simply because of her relationship with her fiancée (now wife), Poulin. Victoire general manager Danièle Sauvageau made it clear she wanted Stacey the player, and the rest is history.
“I never, ever dreamed that there would be this moment three years ago,” Stacey said. “I signed here thinking this is the best city, and it’s going to be amazing but this has far exceeded any expectations. I couldn’t be more proud and honestly this is a dream come true.”
Another player who came to Montreal and has become one of the faces of the team’s win and celebration is Lina Ljungblom. She came from Sweden for the league’s second season after being taken by the team in the last round of the 2024 Draft and playing out the last year of her contract in the SDHL. That year, she lost in the final and said the Walter Cup is the first time she has won a championship since she was 15 years old.
“It’s the best week of my life,” she said.
Like Poulin, Stacey, and Desbiens, Ljungblom also came back from the Olympics with the disappointment, after Sweden lost the bronze medal game in overtime.
“To win with now with this team, it means a lot to me,” she said. “This means so much.”
The team’s mantra since the Game 4 win came from Ljungblom. Before the team’s warmup in Game 4, she gave a speech and instead of saying “today is the day”, what came out was “today is today.”
The misspeaking will last forever, literally, as Ljungblom got the saying tattooed on her left arm along with the Walter Cup.
It also can’t be lost on how monumental the entire is when it comes to women’s hockey and how far the sport has come. The fact that 20,000 fans showed up to a parade when four digits for a regular season game was seen as significant before the PWHL started in 2024 may get lost in the shuffle of attendance records and sold out NHL arenas, or even before having every game broadcast in prime time became the norm. It shouldn’t.
“I remember waking up at 5am to watch what was the NWHL final at the time because that was the only time they’d air it,” said Cheverie. “Now our parade and celebration is on TV right now. It’s come a long way and I’m so proud to be a part of it.”
