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PWHL: More overtime heroics as Montreal defeats Boston to keep winning streak going

Posted on by Jared Book
Laura Stacey scored the overtime winner. (Photo by: Michael Riley/PWHL)

Erin Ambrose had one goal and set up Laura Stacey’s overtime winner as Montreal defeated Boston 2-1 on Sunday night at the Tsongas Centre.

Ambrose took a pass from Marie-Philip Poulin and entered the zone on a two-on-one with Stacey. Ambrose waited out Megan Keller and made a perfect backdoor pass on Stacey’s stick, who made no mistake into the open side of the net.

“You can definitely take the credit away from me,” Stacey said. “I just drove to the net, she made a beautiful pass. She was really patient because there were a lot of sticks and people in the way. I knew she could find me and I stopped backdoor and wait and keep my stick on the ice and I really didn’t have to do anything.”

The goal was Stacey’s fifth of the season. The win was Montreal’s third in a row and they moved into first place all by themselves as the league enters its first International break.

Stacey’s heroics were only one part of the win.

Throughout Elaine Chuli’s NCAA and professional career, she has never played fewer games than her goaltending partner. Only twice in the nine seasons has she played the same amount of games during a regular season. Behind Ann-Renée Desbiens, her role has changed but has been stellar every time she has been called upon.

Chuli made 26 saves on Sunday in the win, improving her record to 3-0-0 on the season. She is the only goaltender in the PWHL to have won every game she has played. She also leads the PWHL with a 1.31 goals against average and .962 save percentage.

“At this point in my career, as you get older in the position you learn and mentally your game really develops,” Chuli said. “It’s a little bit of a different role for me but Ann and I are pushing each other, I’m learning from her every practice, every game, so it’s been a lot of fun and whenever I’m in there I’m going to try to give the team a chance to win and I’m happy we are able to do that today.”

“Every time Elaine’s been in the net she’s given us a chance to win,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. “Tonight was no different. She continues to look more comfortable every time that she plays and another great performance by her.”

The team’s defensive performance was also much better. The team had given up 40 or more shots in their three last games, but held Boston to 27 on Sunday and even outshot them 30-27.

“Really happy with our group for being able to take what we had ask them to implement as coaches and implement very quickly,” Cheverie said. “We’re really happy with the amount of sticks we got on pucks so that they didn’t have some clear chances or clear shots. Still some things to clean up but a much better defensive effort.”

Ambrose opened the scoring late in the first period when she left the blue line to attack down low and finished a beautiful passing play between Maureen Murphy and Poulin and beat Frankel with a deke in close. It was her second goal of the season, both goals giving the team 1-0 leads over Boston.

It remained 1-0 until early in the third period when a Sarah Bujold turnover ended up on Hannah Brandt’s stick, who fed Sophie Shirley in the slot who fired the puck past Chuli. It was Shirley’s first goal of the season.

“The goal against we basically put a puck on their stick in the slot,” Cheverie said. “Obviously we didn’t mean to but if that hadn’t happened I’m confident that we would have come away with the shutout.”

Montreal now has a break until their next game on February 16 which will be played at a sold out Scotiabank Arena where over 18,000 fans are expected. It will be the biggest crowd to see a women’s hockey game. Montreal’s next home game is February 18 when they host Minnesota at Place Bell. That game will set a new Montreal-area record for attendance, with close to 10,000 fans expected as only single tickets remain.

Notes

  • Montreal was without Kristin O’Neill and Dominika Lásková, who were both out for precautionary reasons. The team states precautionary reasons are for issues that they don’t want to see worsen and keep players available for the long road ahead. Gabrielle David took the spot on the second line with Ann-Sophie Bettez and Laura Stacey.
  • O’Neill was supposed to play for Canada in the three remaining games of the Rivalry Series but was removed from the roster and replaced by Boston’s Sophie Shirley.
  • Montreal’s power play was 0/2 and they now sit at 1/26 on the season. Cheverie continues to be asked about the power play but doesn’t seem fazed, and almost seems annoyed that the question comes up. She said of the two opportunities on Sunday, the first generated momentum that led to the team’s first goal a few minutes later and the second had one mistake that led to three others and was the reason for it stalling. She also said before Sunday’s game that she would be more worried if the team didn’t have the success scoring at five-on-five that they do.
  • Catherine Dubois is on her second 10-day contract, but she will still be eligible for the team’s game on February 16. Pat Laprade of TVA Sports confirmed that the timer stops when the league is on break (like they were for the All-Star game and will be for the upcoming international break) so those days are excluded from the 10 day calculation.

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