You couldn’t have written it any better. Just 20 seconds into overtime, Marie-Philip Poulin pounced on a loose puck in the slot and fired it into the net. The Montreal captain, known for her overtime exploits to the extent that she’s known as Captain Clutch, and who was holding back emotions as she was introduced in front of a sold out crowd, seemed to have done it again in her team’s home opener.
It was not to be. Boston head coach Courtney Kessel challenged the goal for goaltender interference. Despite most of the crowd of 3,245 chanting “GOAL!” during the review, the goal was disallowed as Laura Stacey was ruled to be disrupting Aerin Frankel’s ability to make the save on Poulin’s shot.
It does look like Stacey interfered here. The goal might be coming back. Or did the defender push her in? pic.twitter.com/vscA5xGYwo
— Marc Dumont (@MarcPDumont) January 13, 2024
The game continued, and it was finally Amanda Pelkey who pounced on a Gigi Marvin rebound and fired it past a diving Ann-Renée Desbiens at the 2:17 mark to give Boston a 3-2 win in overtime.
“I saw a goal, obviously,” Poulin said when asked what she saw on the play that led to the disallowed goal. “Laura went to the net fast enough with Hilary Knight, the puck was there and I put it in”
For Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie it was what she didn’t say when asked rather than what she did say. She smiled and waited before finally starting to talk.
“It’s tough, right?,” said Cheverie. “A player like Laura Stacey, she’s always going to go to the net hard, the puck’s in the blue paint, she’s going to finish at the net hard. I was hoping it would be a goal, it was obviously called off, I think everyone in our dressing room would disagree but Boston’s happy and leaving with two points.”
Cheverie does admit that if the situation was reversed, she would have challenged as well as you’re really in a situation that has no downside.
“I got a beautiful pass and just tried to put it on net,” Stacey said. “Obviously I got in there a little too far, but it would have been awesome if she could have scored. That’s sports, that’s hockey, and unfortunately we didn’t get it tonight. I saw the puck there, I tried to get it as free as I could, I felt I was pushed in but it’s hockey everything is so quick in this kind of split second. It was a reaction and unfortunately it didn’t go our way.”
It was a game that felt like a playoff game because of not only the grandeur of the event but the intensity of the play. After a scoreless first period, Montreal got off to a quick start in the second period. Erin Ambrose sent the crowd into a frenzy when she fired a wrist shot from the point that beat Frankel just 33 seconds into the period.
Le premier but de Erin Ambrose dans l’uniforme de Montréal!
— PWHL Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) January 13, 2024
Erin’s first goal! pic.twitter.com/KFHnj3Jx1J
Just 29 seconds later, Tereza Vanišova passed to Stacey who fired a one-timer past Frankel to make it 2-0 before the announcement of the Ambrose goal was even completed.
Quel tir de Stacey 😮💨
— PWHL Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) January 13, 2024
What a shot by Stacey 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/oHDAikWqmI
“We had just scored, it was kind of all a blur,” Stacey said. “[Vanišova] made a great pass right in the sweet spot and I just tried to get it on net. I didn’t even think it went in but it was a two minutes full of a lot of emotions that I think our bench and this arena felt.”
Those emotions may have cost them.
“For our group some of the messaging today was it was going to be an emotional day, we need to make sure we’re not getting too high or too low and probably after that second goal we got a little too high,” Cheverie said.
The turning point came on a Montreal power play around three minutes after Stacey’s goal. Taylor Girard got a break shorthanded and fired a shot past Desbiens to make it 2-1. With the PWHL’s new rule, the goal not only switched momentum but ended the power play with 1:02 remaining as it freed the penalized player. One minute and 31 seconds later, Hannah Brandt scored to tie the game at 2-2.
Both teams had their fair share of scoring chances, with both goaltenders making key saves. Desbiens ended the night with 18 while Frankel made 31 saves. The two teams went 0/3 on their power plays. Boston had two opportunities in the first, Montreal had two in the second, and both teams had one each in the final eight minutes third period.
Montreal’s record now sits at 1-1-1-1, with a total of six points out of a possible 12. They will continue their homestand on Tuesday when they take on New York at Place Bell. Puck drop is at 7:00 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on Sportsnet, RDS2, MSG-2, and YouTube. Reports are that over 6,000 tickets have already been sold for the game.
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