Game 5: New York @ Montreal
Place Bell, Laval
Start time: 7:00 PM EST / 4:00 PM PST
In Canada: Sportsnet (English), RDS2 (French)
In the United States: MSG-2
Streaming: Sportsnet+, YouTube
Montreal is getting ready to play in front of their biggest home crowd of the season, after 3,245 filled the Verdun Auditorium on Saturday. They will be hosting PWHL New York at Place Bell, and over 6,000 tickets have already been allocated per reports.
All of the lower bowl was put up for sale, and only the top half of certain sections in the corners and behind the nets still have a significant amount of seats available.
After a tough overtime loss on Saturday, Montreal’s locker room was silent according to Montreal forward Laura Stacey.
“We don’t know what to do because we never really had this where ‘OK, Tuesday’s a new day’ we have to pull ourselves back together, regroup and turn it around,” Stacey said. “It’s a really long season, this one moment, this one game isn’t going to be the difference maker of a tournament, say, like we’re used to. It is going to be a learning curve of ups and downs and there’s a lot happening with this league but the more we can stay that even-keel team and bounce back from those bumps but stay low when we do get those celebrations.”
Considering the Laval Rocket’s motto has been “never too high, never too low” for several seasons, it is a fitting place for them to play their next game.
“It’s important for us to keep that feel in the locker room of ‘we got this’, the ups, downs, sideways throughout the season and enjoy the ride.”
This is the second meeting between the two teams in a week, having played in New York on January 10. Montreal won that game 5-2 on the back of a Marie-Philip Poulin hat trick. This is the first time that Montreal will be playing a team for the second time. Their first game against Toronto comes on Saturday.
| Montreal | Statistics | New York |
|---|---|---|
| 1-1-1-1 | Record (W-OTW-OTL-L) | 1-1-0-2 |
| 2.50 (T-4th) | Goals per game | 2.75 (T-2nd) |
| 2.50 (T-3rd) | Goals against per game | 2.50 (T-3rd) |
| 8.3% (5th) | PP% | 25.0% (2nd) |
| 88.2% (3rd) | PK% | 85.7% (4th) |
| 1-0-0-0 | Head-to-Head Record | 0-0-0-1 |
New York is coming off of an overtime win in Minnesota. They trailed that game 2-0 but eventually won 3-2 on the OT winner by Emma Woods. New York has the top two scorers in the league. Ella Shelton, who scored the first goal in league history, has two goals and four assists for six points. Alex Carpenter has three goals and two assists. Jessie Eldridge (2-2-4) is in a the for third with four points. Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin (3-1-4) and Tereza Vanišova (0-4-4) are also in that four point group.
There are a lot of Montreal connections on this New York team. Their management group of general manager Pascal Daoust, manager of player services and hockey administration Katia Clement-Heydra, and director of analytics Christophe Perreault are all from the province. Clement-Heydra played for the Canadiennes and coached with the Force.
There are five players on New York who signed with the Force for this season before the PHF folded: Jade Downie-Landry, Elizabeth Giguère, Alexandra Labelle, Taylor Baker, and Corinne Schroeder. Two others: Jessie Eldridge and Jaime Bourbonnais trained at the Centre 21.02. Jill Saulnier, currently on LTIR, also played for the Canadiennes and trained at the Centre.
Montreal potential lineup
| FORWARDS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 24 ANN-SOPHIE BETTEZ | 29 MARIE-PHILIP POULIN | 15 MAUREEN MURPHY | |||
| 21 TEREZA VANIŠOVA | 43 KRISTIN O’NEILL | 7 LAURA STACEY | |||
| 16 SARAH LEFORT | 14 JILLIAN DEMPSEY | 22 KENNEDY MARCHMENT | |||
| 28 CATHERINE DUBOIS | 26 SARAH BUJOLD | 42 CLAIRE DALTON | |||
| DEFENDERS | |||||
| 9 KATI TABIN | 23 ERIN AMBROSE | ||||
| 2 MARIAH KEOPPLE | 96 DOMINIKA LÁSKOVÁ | ||||
| 6 MADISON BIZAL | 4 CATHERINE DAOUST | ||||
| 12 LEAH LUM | |||||
| GOALTENDERS | |||||
| 35 ANN-RENÉE DESBIENS | |||||
| 20 ELAINE CHULI | |||||
Extras: D 10 Brigitte Laganière, F 8 Gabrielle David, G 1 Marlène Boissonnault
New York potential lineup
| FORWARDS | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 11 ABBY ROQUE | 25 ALEX CARPENTER | 9 JESSIE ELDRIDGE | |||
| 12 CHLOÉ AURARD | 67 EMMA WOODS | 19 PAETYN LEVIS | |||
| 10 KAYLA VESPA | 27 JADE DOWNIE-LANDRY | 18 ELIZABETH GIGUERE | |||
| 23 MADISON PACKER | 13 ALEXANDRA LABELLE | 71 SAVANNAH NORCROSS | |||
| 16 ALEXA GRUSCHOW | |||||
| DEFENDERS | |||||
| 6 BROOKE HOBSON | 14 JAIME BOURBONNAIS | ||||
| 17 ELLA SHELTON | 59 JOHANNA FÄLLMAN | ||||
| 3 OLIVIA ZAFUTO | 2 TAYLOR BAKER | ||||
| GOALTENDERS | |||||
| 30 CORINNE SCHROEDER | |||||
| 39 ABBEY LEVY | |||||
Extras: G 33 Lindsey Post, D 28 Micah Zandee-Hart (injured)
