PWHPA: Montreal rolls to showcase title on home ice

Three first-period goals paved the way for Montreal (Team Harvey’s) to defeat Minnesota (Team Adidas) 6-3 in the championship game of the PWHPA’s Quartexx Showcase at the Verdun Auditorium on Sunday evening.

It was a much better start for Montreal. After falling behind 2-0 in Saturday’s semi-final. they scored the first goal on Sunday only 2:11 into the game when Catherine Dubois sped into the zone, went around Laura Fortino and snuck the shot through the legs of Minnesota goaltender Sydnee Scobee.

Just 1:26 later, they doubled their advantage. Sarah Lefort took the Kristin O’Neill pass on a two-on-one and made no mistake.

O’Neill added a goal of her own midway through the period to make it 3-0 after Jaime Bourbonnais made a great play to get to the net, picked up her own rebound, and made a perfect centering pass.

Montreal added a fourth goal from Kim Deschênes in the second period and Rebecca Leslie added a fifth early in the third period before penalty trouble allowed Minnesota to close the gap.

Minnesota got power play goals from Fortino and Brittany Howard to make it 5-2. Annie Pankowski scored a third goal to make it 5-3 but veteran Ann-Sophie Bettez scored the final goal of the showcase to make it the final score of 6-3.

Marie-Soleil Deschênes (no relation to Kim) made 28 saves in the win, capping off what was an incredible season for the Montreal goaltender. In the three showcases Montreal took part in, they finished first twice and lost a final in a shootout. Deschênes ended the season with a 5-0-1 record, her only loss 2-1 in a shootout where she made 39 saves.

Calgary (Team Scotiabank) won the overall season Secret Cup with a third-place finish in Montreal, as they defeated Boston (Team Bauer) 6-5 with a goal in the final minute.

Montreal was behind the eight-ball as they pulled out of December’s Toronto showcase due to COVID-19, leaving them with a fourth-place finish, essentially leaving them one tournament short of the other teams.