It was a familiar end to the PWHL season for the Montreal Victoire. A third one-goal loss in four games saw them lose their best-of-five series to the Ottawa Charge in four games despite being the top seed and choosing Ottawa as their opponent. Montreal lost 2-1 at TD Place Arena on Friday night.
In two years, the Victoire are 1-6 in seven playoff games, all decided by one goal.
Emily Clark’s goal 31 seconds into the third period proved to be the game winner. After a turnover on a clearing chance by Montreal, Ottawa forward Gabbie Hughes kicked the puck to Clark, who carried the puck towards the net before roofing the shot past Montreal goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. The goal made the score 2-0.
Montreal challenged the play for a hand pass, but the puck went off of her skate, not her glove. Montreal was forced to the penalty kill, and they did kill the penalty.
Maureen Murphy, who was Montreal’s leading goal scorer in the series and leads all Victoire players in playoff points over the last two seasons, gave the Victoire a glimmer of hope with a great individual effort with 5:02 remaining. It was Montreal’s first goal since their overtime winner in Game 2, but was as close as they would come.
Ottawa’s Gwyneth Philips made 19 saves in the win, while Desbiens made 21.
“The whole series has been a battle of the goaltenders,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. “We made a really good push until the end, we just couldn’t find a way to get that little black rubber thing across the line. We just couldn’t score.”
Montreal ended the series with six goals in four games.
Marie-Philip Poulin was in tears for most of the post-game press conference, even before having to speak. “This one hurts,” she said. “Second year in a row we don’t make it out of the first round. We have to look in the mirror, what we can do differently, how we can improve It will take some time.”
“I think it’s hard right now in the moment,” said Montreal defender Erin Ambrose. “I’ve always said that [playing] internationally is great. It’s obviously a privilege to play there, but to be on this team with this group, day in and day out, with this group of people and the phenomenal people that they are, it makes it really disappointing that we couldn’t get the job done–– and that’s staff included. Our staff does everything under the sun to prepare us, to get us in situations. And I think the hardest thing is knowing that this group will never be back together.”
With two new expansion teams entering the league next season, rosters will surely look very different than they did this season, to which Ambrose is alluding to.
The Charge now take on the defending Walter Cup champions Minnesota Frost in the best-of-five final which begins on Tuesday night in Ottawa.
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