Game 19: Montreal (10-3-1-4, 37 pts, 1st) vs. Boston (6-5-2-6, 30 pts, 3rd)
Bell Centre
Start time: 2:00 PM ET / 11:00 AM PT
In Canada: CBC (English), Radio-Canada (French)
In the United States: NESN
Streaming: YouTube (USA/International), CBC Gem (Canada)
Laura Stacey still remembers her first shift at the Bell Centre.
“Me, Kristen [O’Neill], and Marie were on a line together and we literally had a 15 second shift, dumped it in, all came back to bench and said ‘oh my gosh’,” Stacey remembered after practice on Friday. “We had to just take a deep breath, we couldn’t breathe, there was so much happening, so many emotions, especially after that standing ovation that she [Poulin] got in the starting lineup.”
“I think it was for the first time, ‘woah this is incredible, this is record breaking’,” she continued. “You see people crying in the stands. I think we were so full of emotions that we had no sense of what our body was doing out there, so we were just ‘OK, get it in, get off, and take a deep breath’.”
The emotions weren’t only in the stands and on the ice, they were behind the bench too.
“When they announced [Poulin], in that moment I was fighting back a little bit of emotion there,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. “I’ve seen it all, I’ve lived through all the moments of women’s hockey since I fell in love with the game so to be in that moment… I could feel it for all of them because I had been dreaming of that my whole life as well.”
One of the lasting images of the game at the Bell Centre last year was Erin Ambrose looking around as she was jumping on the ice. Ambrose also scored the team’s second goal of the game that forced overtime.
“That one hit home for a lot of different reasons,” Ambrose said. “It meant a lot to our group, to be able to get a point out of that game.”
It was also her last PWHL goal, having yet to score this season.
“It would be nice to be able to find the back of the net at some point this year,” Ambrose said. “If it takes going to the Bell Centre to do it, then I’ll take it.”
Montreal defender Amanda Boulier was on the ice when Sarah Bujold scored the team’s first goal, sending the sold-out crowd into a frenzy.
“I still get chills thinking about it,” Boulier said. “It’s definitely a moment I’ll remember for a very long time.”
Saturday’s game against Boston will likely not be a sell out matching the largest crowd to ever watch a women’s hockey game, and it might not even be the largest crowd Montreal will play in front of this year, having played in front of 19,038 in Vancouver earlier this season.
The noise, however, is something many are expecting.
“I’ve heard it’s the loudest building that some players have ever played in,” said rookie forward Jennifer Gardiner who is preparing for her first game at the Bell Centre. “I’m just expecting what Montreal always brings, which is an incredible environment to every single game.”
Gardiner won the Accuracy Shooting competition at the Canadiens skills competition, hitting all four targets on only four shots in 9.4 seconds, and beating even the NHL players competing. It was her first time on the Bell Centre ice, but she has been there for a few games including the most recent 4 Nations Face-Off.
Another player who attended the 4 Nations Face-Off games is Swedish Lina Ljungblom, who has yet to step on the ice at the arena.
“I’m looking forward to it, like, so much,” said Ljungblom who was almost unable to contain her excitement. “I heard so much stuff about it, so I’m really, really excited.”
Cheverie, who prides herself on being loud, already has a weaker-than-normal voice, which given the potential volume at the Bell Centre has her slightly concerned.
“I’m worried because my voice is not where it needs to be,” she said. “I’m usually pretty loud, but right now it’s not going to be the case so maybe we’re going to have to discuss what our TV timeout strategy is.”
| Montreal | Statistics | Boston |
|---|---|---|
| 10-3-1-4 | Record (W-OTW-OTL-L) | 6-5-2-6 |
| 2.83 (2nd) | Goals per game | 2.58 (4th) |
| 2.28 (2nd) | Goals against per game | 2.26 (1st) |
| 16.9% (5th) | PP% | 17.3% (3rd) |
| 81.5% (3rd) | PK% | 87.3% (1st) |
| 1-0-1-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-1-0-1 |
Boston is entering the Bell Centre game on a four-game winning streak and a regulation win on Saturday would put them into second place in the PWHL. One of the reasons for their success is the emergence of Jill Sauliner, acquired in a trade from New York.
Saulnier is one of two players to have already played at the Bell Centre as a member of the Calgary Inferno in the 2016 game. She played for the Canadiennes in the 2018-19 season but there was no game at the Bell Centre that season. The only other member of the Fleet who played at the Bell Centre was Jillian Dempsey, who played with Montreal last season. If she is in the lineup, it will be her first game against her former team.
It’s also an opportunity for Fleet captain Hilary Knight to play at the Montreal arena.
The game at the Bell Centre will be the largest attendance the Fleet will have played in front of this season, as the Montreal crowd will surpass the 12,000 that attended the Fleet’s shootout win against Montreal in Seattle.
It is the third of six games between the two teams this season. The two teams met in last year’s playoffs, with Boston sweeping the three-game series with each game going to overtime.
Previous Bell Centre games
December 10, 2016 – Montreal 1, Calgary 0 (Recap)
Attendance: 5,938
Winning goaltender: Charline Labonté
Losing goaltender: Emerance Maschmeyer
Goals: Marie-Philip Poulin (MTL)
November 11, 2017 – Kunlun Red Star 3, Montreal 1 (Recap)
Attendance: 5,187
Winning goaltender: Yuqing Wang
Losing goaltender: Emerance Maschmeyer
Goals: Erinn Noseworthy (MTL), Melanie Jue, Jessica Wong, Kelli Stack (KRS)
April 20, 2024 – Toronto 3, Montreal 2 (OT) (Recap)
Attendance: 21,105
Winning goaltender: Kristen Campbell
Losing goaltender: Ann-Renée Desbiens
Goals: Sarah Bujold, Erin Ambrose (MTL), Blayre Turnbull, Sarah Nurse (2) (TOR)
Montreal potential lineup
| FORWARDS | ||
|---|---|---|
| 12 JENNIFER GARDINER | 29 MARIE-PHILIP POULIN | 7 LAURA STACEY |
| 25 LINA LJUNGBLOM | 43 KRISTIN O’NEILL | 24 ABBY BOREEN |
| 18 MIKYLA GRANT-MENTIS | 21 MAUREEN MURPHY | 42 CLAIRE DALTON |
| 28 CATHERINE DUBOIS* | 26 CLAIR DEGEORGE | 17 DARA GREIG |
| DEFENDERS | ||
| 9 KATI TABIN | 23 ERIN AMBROSE | |
| 5 ANNA WILGREN | 3 CAYLA BARNES | |
| 2 MARIAH KEOPPLE | 44 AMANDA BOULIER | |
| 71 ANNA KJELLBIN | ||
| GOALTENDERS | ||
| 35 ANN-RENÉE DESBIENS | ||
| 20 ELAINE CHULI |
Extras: G 30 Sandra Abstreiter, D 14 Dominika Lásková, D 51 Kelly-Ann Nadeau, F 13 Alexandra Labelle (LTIR), F 22 Kennedy Marchment (LTIR)
* Note that as of publication, Catherine Dubois is still on LTIR, however she was a full participant at Friday’s practice. Her presence is not confirmed for Saturday’s game.
Boston potential lineup
| FORWARDS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 44 JILL SAULNIER | 77 SUSANNA TAPANI | 9 SOPHIE SHIRLEY | |||
| 11 ALINA MÜLLER | 27 SHAY MALONEY | 21 HILARY KNIGHT | |||
| 37 THERESA SCHAFZAHL | 20 HANNAH BRANDT | 47 JAMIE LEE RATTRAY | |||
| 36 LOREN GABEL | 14 JILLIAN DEMPSEY | 16 AMANDA PELKEY | |||
| DEFENDERS | |||||
| 5 MEGAN KELLER | 15 SYDNEY BARD | ||||
| 2 EMILY BROWN | 7 SIDNEY MORIN | ||||
| 22 JESSICA DIGIROLAMO | 25 EMMA GRECO / 55 DANIELA PEJSOVA | ||||
| GOALTENDERS | |||||
| 31 AERIN FRANKEL | |||||
| 30 EMMA SÖDERBERG | |||||
Extras: G 20 Klara Peslarova, F 88 Lexie Adzija, F 19 Hannah Bilka (LTIR)
