Hannah Murphy made 37 saves as the Seattle Torrent defeated the Montreal Victoire 2-1 on Tuesday in the first-ever meeting between the two teams at Climate Pledge Arena.
It set a career-high in saves for the Seattle second-round pick and she is now 3-0-0 with a 1.00 goals against average and .966 save percentage. The game ended Montreal’s four-game winning streak.
Montreal had an early power play but was unable to capitalize, continuing a dry spell with the player advantage. They were 0/6 over their last two games heading into this one. Seattle had a power play of their own, but was unable to score the game’s first goal. Montreal’s power play ended the game 0/4, while Seattle’s went 0/2.
Abby Roque opened the scoring late in the first period, when she wired a slap shot from the left circle for her second goal of the season. Roque took a feed from Laura Stacey and fired the shot over the shoulder of Hannah Murphy. Marie-Philip Poulin also had an assist on the play.
Abby nous offre un beau cadeau 🎁
— Victoire de Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) December 24, 2025
A Christmas gift signed by Abby pic.twitter.com/64Ps4Oquf5
Seattle outshot Montreal 12-7 in the period, but it was the road team that went into the intermission with the lead.
The Torrent tied the game 3:32 into the second period when a clearing attempt by Cayla Barnes was tipped out by Jessie Eldridge to create a two-on-one where Julia Gosling’s shot was stopped by Ann-Renée Desbiens but Alex Carpenter was there to pot the rebound for her fourth goal of the season.
Both teams had more power play opportunities to take the lead before the end of the second, but the penalties were killed. Seattle had the edge to start the period, but Montreal finished the period with a 15-8 shot advantage.
On a delayed penalty 3:23 into the third period, Hilary Knight fed Julia Gosling on another two-on-one, whose shot snuck by Desbiens for her fourth goal of the season to give Seattle a 2-1 lead.
The play was reviewed as Marie-Philip Poulin touched the puck, but it was deemed to not be control enough to have stopped play.
The Victoire had several good scoring chances to tie the game, but were just unable to find loose pucks around the crease, and get a stick on opportunities with the net available.
With 2:45 remaining, Montreal went back on the power play and pulled Desbiens for a six-on-four advantage. They did have some opportunities, but were unable to beat Murphy to get the tying goal. The Victoire outshot Seattle 15-3 in the third period, but it was the Torrent who scored the period’s only goal. Desbiens made 21 saves.
The game wrapped up Montreal’s three-game road trip that saw them go from Halifax to Vancouver and ending in Seattle. The team returns home after their holiday break before returning to action on Sunday, December 27 at the Bell Centre.
”You have to look at [the road trip] as a whole,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. “The group has been on the road, travelling coast to coast for the last 10 days and there’s a lot of positives. You can’t just look at this last game or last period. I would even say the first period was not our best. Then from that moment on, we pushed forward and we liked the kind of game that we put on the ice. From the whole trip, we take what we need from this game, we take what we need from Halifax and Vancouver and then we move into the Bell Centre.”
Notes
- Catherine Dubois missed her third straight game with an injury. She is still listed as day-to-day.
- Cousins Julia and Montreal defender Nicole Gosling played their first PWHL game against each other. “It’s not our first time playing against each other, but to be here at this level, it’s definitely really special for both of our families and everyone that supports us,” Nicole said after the game.
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