It was only 10 days ago where the Montreal Victoire had a 3-0 lead in the third period against a team they could leapfrog in the standings. That afternoon, they lost to the Boston Fleet 4-3, and after the game the players and coach Kori Cheverie said it was a learning opportunity.
Fast forward to Wednesday night, and the Victoire held on to a 3-0 win on the road against the Minnesota Frost to move into second place in the PWHL with eight games remaining.
The win moved the Victoire to 3-0-1 when Marie-Philip Poulin and Erin Ambrose are not in the lineup this season. Both players are on long-term injured reserve. It also provided Montreal with a 10th straight game with a point, only the second PWHL team in history to have such a streak. They are 6-2-2-0 (six regulation wins, two overtime/shootout wins, and two overtime losses) in those 10 games.
It wasn’t a great start for the Victoire, as they were outshot 6-5 in the opening period despite having an early power play, the period’s only one. Starting in the second period, you started to see a much better performance from Montreal.
They had a strong start to the period, outshooting Minnesota 5-0 in the opening minutes, and never really relinquished that momentum. The shots were 12-6 overall for the Victoire, and they were rewarded for controlling the play after a turnover in the Minnesota zone and the loose puck found its way to the top of the zone, where Catherine Dubois had the chance to walk into a hard slap shot to beat Maddie Rooney. It was Dubois’ second goal of the season, both coming in the last three games when she was put on the team’s top line after the injury to Poulin.
The goal came with 41 seconds remaining in the period. Before the buzzer ran out, Montreal was called for a penalty, allowing the Frost to start the third period on the power play.
Montreal has the league’s best penalty kill, and did not allow much to keep their 1-0 lead. They continued to push, and Hayley Scamurra scored her third of the season after getting a loose puck in front of the net and out-waiting Rooney to tuck the puck into the open net. Less than five minutes later, Lina Ljungblom broke in on a partial breakaway and fired a perfect shot to beat Rooney high for her third of the season.
“Minnesota is always a really competitive game for us,” said Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. “They have team speed, and it’s something that we certainly focus on in terms of: how do we slow a team down that has that much team speed, and that much team depth. They’re a team that wins hockey games, and we seem to rise to the occasion, and especially in this building.”
In that loss to Boston, Cheverie said that a three-goal lead is the worst in hockey because teams tend to relax. The Victoire were motivated to not let that happen again. The shots were 4-4 after the 3-0 goal, and did not even give Frost coach Ken Klee the chance to pull their goaltender to try and get on the board. That was another thing Cheverie pointed out in that loss, that they didn’t even want to give them the opportunity to get the extra attacker on the ice.
The win allowed Montreal to sweep the season series against the two-time defending champions, winning two games in regulation and two in overtime. In the last two games, Montreal has shut out the Frost, the only team in the PWHL to shut down the league’s best offensive team. In all, the team and Ann-Renée Desbiens have allowed only three goals in four games against the Frost.
“It was a really a big team effort from every single player out there. I thought we kept working hard. And when you wear a team down after two, three periods, sometimes it takes a little longer to get rewarded with goals,” said Desbiens. “But obviously Dubois had a nice shot on that goal. Lina [Ljungblom], Hayley Scamurra, all [players] that always work so hard, so it was nice to see them rewarded with goals tonight. And obviously that gave us a lot of confidence. We did such a good job defensively at taking their time and space away, being physical when we needed it, and taking their opportunities.”
It was Desbiens’ fifth shutout of the season, one behind Boston’s Aerin Frankel.
Montreal’s three-game road trip that included games in Winnipeg and Minnesota concludes on Saturday in Detroit against the New York Sirens. Montreal is now two points behind the Boston Fleet, with two head-to-head matchups still to come.
Full Highlights
Standings
| TEAM | GP | GR | RW | OW | SW | OL | RL | PTS | GF | GA | MAX PTS | MAGIC | TRAGIC | #1 | HOME | GOLD | PT % | GF/G | GA/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BOS | 22 | 8 | 11 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 4 | 45 | 51 | 34 | 69 | 10 | 39 | 23 | 22 | – | 0.682 | 2.32 | 1.55 |
| MTL | 22 | 8 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 43 | 56 | 32 | 67 | 12 | 37 | 25 | 24 | – | 0.652 | 2.55 | 1.45 |
| MIN | 22 | 8 | 11 | 3 | 0 | 3 | 5 | 42 | 67 | 45 | 66 | 13 | 36 | 26 | 25 | – | 0.636 | 3.05 | 2.05 |
| TOR | 22 | 8 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 8 | 31 | 43 | 55 | 55 | 24 | 25 | 37 | 36 | – | 0.470 | 1.95 | 2.50 |
| OTT | 22 | 8 | 5 | 5 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 30 | 53 | 61 | 54 | 25 | 24 | 38 | 37 | – | 0.455 | 2.41 | 2.77 |
| NY | 22 | 8 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 11 | 27 | 50 | 61 | 51 | 28 | 21 | 41 | 40 | – | 0.409 | 2.27 | 2.77 |
| VAN | 22 | 8 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 24 | 41 | 53 | 48 | 31 | 18 | 44 | 43 | – | 0.364 | 1.86 | 2.41 |
| SEA | 22 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 22 | 45 | 65 | 46 | 33 | 16 | 46 | 45 | – | 0.333 | 2.05 | 2.95 |
