For the second straight postseason, and fourth straight playoff game, the Montreal Victoire were sitting in the post-game press conference room talking about a one-goal loss. For three of those games, they were doing so in Montreal. Thursday night’s 3-2 loss didn’t require overtime, the Ottawa Charge took Game 1 in regulation, but the result is the same: the Victoire lost home-ice advantage and face a 1-0 series deficit.
Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie has been adamant that the team doesn’t want to look back at last year, and that with the turnover that messaging would fall flat for anyone who wasn’t on the team. Looking forward doesn’t present a much better outlook. Montreal players and coaches admitted they didn’t have their best game on Thursday. When the puck drops on Sunday afternoon for Game 2, they’ll have no choice.
“They have to find a way. We as a collective have to find a way,” said Cheverie. “It’s not an ideal position to be in, but it truly does show the character that’s going to be in that room for a response. That’s what I’m really looking forward to.”
The fact is, it is a best-of-five series, not a one-game battle. Victoire forward Laura Stacey said they didn’t expect to go 6-0 en route to the Walter Cup, and that much is true. However, on top of the Ottawa Charge looking to move on in their first playoff appearance, there’s still the scar tissue from last year and the fact the organization is now 0-4 in playoff games.
“I feel it,” admitted Stacey after the game. “I need to put a chance away too. It’s just as much on me as it is every single person in the locker room. The sun comes up tomorrow. We’re positive in that room. We know what we can do.”
“We have to win a hockey game,” Cheverie said. “If we dwell on what’s in the past we’re not going to make it very far. We have to regroup, move forward.”
“Hockey is tough,” Stacey said. “I had to take a deep breath before coming in here because it hurts, losing hurts. It wasn’t our best and we were right there. That game was just as much ours as it was theirs. We outshot them, we had a lot of great opportunities. We were right there. If we can put that game together for 60 whole minutes, it’ll look scary I think.”
Montreal constantly had to fight back in this game. Ottawa opened the scoring 4:54 into the game when Brianne Jenner fired a one-timer past Ann-Renée Desbiens on the power play.
The Victoire tied it on a power play of their own when Kati Tabin drove the net and found Maureen Murphy at the doorstep who put the puck past Gwyneth Philips. It was Murphy’s fourth point in four career PWHL playoff games, leading all Montreal players.
“I think it’s huge,” Murphy said. “Not just for me, to have both our power play units really kick things off, that’s huge for us. It’s a huge momentum changer, but we don’t want to just build momentum we want to score.”
Early in the second period, Ottawa re-took the lead. After a scramble in front, Danielle Serdachny passed the puck out front to Ashton Bell, who fired the shot past Desbiens to make it 2-1.
Again, Montreal fought back on the power play. Erin Ambrose made a perfect one-timer feed to Marie-Philip Poulin, who snuck the shot in short-side on Philips. It was Poulin’s first PWHL playoff goal on home ice, and the first time that Montreal scored more than one goal in a home playoff game.
The game changed midway through the third period. Poulin set up Stacey in the slot, but Philips made the save. Ottawa countered and after Jenn Gardiner broke up the initial rush, Emily Clark picked up the loose puck and two players followed her into the corner leaving Clark a lane to pass it to Shiann Darkangelo, who had time and space to fire the puck past Desbiens.
That made the score 3-2, and it was one lead that the Victoire couldn’t fight back from.
The top line continued to get chances a few minutes later, but in the dying minutes with the goaltender pulled, never really threatened. The line of Gardiner, Stacey, and Poulin finished the game with 18 shots. Philips made 31 saves as Montreal outshot Ottawa 33-27.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series will be at Place Bell on Sunday at 2:00 p.m.
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