The Montreal Victoire entered the third period with a 3-1 lead and a five minute penalty to kill, but ended up allowing only one shot during the penalty cementing their win against the Boston Fleet at a sold out Place Bell on Monday night.
The win moved Montreal into sole possession of first place in the PWHL, one point ahead of Minnesota. It was the team’s fourth straight victory, setting a new team record. The team has won five of their first six games, three of them in regulation.
“I am really happy with [the start to the season],” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. “Not fully satisfied, but really happy. Anytime in this league if you think you can take your foot off the pedal for a second, you can’t. Regardless of what the score is, regardless of where we are in the standings, our process remains the same.
“I’m happy with we’re at, but never satisfied,” Cheverie said.
Montreal had the game’s first chance when Jennifer Gardiner skated in on the left wing and fired a shot off of the post.
Both teams had opportunities on the power play. Boston had the first one when Abby Boreen went off for tripping, but they did not capitalize. Montreal then had back to back power plays when Sophie Shirley went off for cross checking, and just 10 seconds after that penalty expired went off for boarding. It gave Montreal a chance to try and snap their drought. After going 2/7 in the season opener, the Victoire were 0/14 since going into Monday’s game.
Their best chance came early on the second advantage when Lina Ljungblom was stopped in tight by Emma Söderberg. Boston’s best chance came after the penalties expired when Hilary Knight entered the zone and made a saucer pass to Susanna Tapani, but Ann-Renée Desbiens made the save. Desbiens finished the game with 18 saves.
Ljungblom had her second chance of the period when she had a shot from the left circle that was saved by her Swedish national team teammate.
The Victoire opened the scoring in the final minute when Claire Dalton took the puck in the Montreal zone, skated along the left wing, and then made a power move to the net, beating Söderberg to the far post with her forehand. The goal came with 37 seconds remaining in the first.
Claire a vraiment dit: Laissez-moi me faufiler. 😵
Claire really said, ‘Let me sneak by ya.’ pic.twitter.com/72Lvao2wUP
— Victoire de Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) December 31, 2024
“Kori had a talk with all of us individually [on Sunday] and for me, I executed what she wanted me to do,” said Dalton. “I saw space wide and Kori and I have talked about taking the puck to the net and this time it worked out.”
“I talked to all the players [on Sunday] on our day off,” Cheverie said. “I just said I wouldn’t be doing my job if I wasn’t diving deep into little aspects of everyone’s individual game. Even though we’ve won a couple of games in a row I still have to dive into things and approach it as ‘hey what is there that we need to improve.’”
Boston started the second period with the best scoring chances despite Montreal having the period’s first power play. Hilary Knight had another great chance shorthanded, but Desbiens was able to make the save. A few minutes later, she needed to make another save on Tapani’s backhand, but a few seconds after that, Hannah Bilka entered the zone on the right wing and passed to a driving Knight, who tipped the puck past Desbiens this time to tie the game at 1-1.
Montreal head coach wasn’t happy with her team’s play, and swapped the wingers on the top two lines in the second period. She said the move was to try and generate more offence and she doesn’t want to be the type of coach that just waits for something to happen and that she won’t be afraid to look to shake things up to try and find an offensive spark.
The Victoire took the lead on a penalty kill on their own. With Catherine Dubois in the penalty box, Dalton sprung Kristin O’Neill on a breakaway, and she made no mistake, beating Söderberg five-hole to free Dubois from the box on a jailbreak goal.
On adore un but jailbreak ❤️
Gotta love a jailbreak goal pic.twitter.com/IwxS51eZiH
— Victoire de Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) December 31, 2024
Dalton was asked about her pass that sprung O’Neill, but she laughed and called it a lucky bounce. On top of Dalton’s goal and assist, she also played a big role on the penalty kill that went 5/5 on Boston’s chances with the advantage.
“Claire Dalton is so valuable to our team,” Cheverie said. “She can play in any position. Right now, she’s playing on the fourth line, but she has the ability to be on the power play, play up and down in all 13 positions and is a big-time killer for us. She generated a lot of momentum for us.”
Montreal extended their lead just 1:15 later when Anna Wilgren’s shot from the left point tipped off a Boston stick but still went top corner off the post and in. It was the rookie’s first PWHL goal.
Anna Wilgren marque son premier but professionnel!🙌
Anna Wilgren scores her first PWHL goal! pic.twitter.com/AxB2ELtnsS
— Victoire de Montréal (@PWHL_Montreal) December 31, 2024
Right at the end of the period, Catherine Dubois hit Megan Keller at centre ice but play continued with Söderberg making a save at the buzzer. After the whistle, Boston took exception to the hit on Dubois, leading to a scrum in the corner. When both teams were separated, the officials reviewed the hit and gave Dubois a major penalty and game misconduct as it was deemed head contact. All check to the head penalties in the PWHL are automatically a major and game misconduct.
“Knowing the person, [Dubois] has one of the biggest hearts,” said Montreal goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. “She is one of the kindest human beings I have ever met. You just want to support her and be there for her, and obviously get that kill, we did exactly that. She is one of the best teammates who always puts the team first, so we owed her one.”
Boston started the third period on a five-minute power play, but could not generate much of anything during it, earning only one official shot on goal. In the entire third period, despite nine minutes of power play time and over two minutes with their goaltender pulled for the extra attacker, Boston was outshot in the period 12-2.
“It was terrible,” Fleet head coach Courtney Kessel said about the team’s power play, which went 0/5 on the night. “One of the hardest things to do is to start a period on the power play. Sometimes you don’t play with urgency because you think you’re up a player and from there it went downhill.”
“I think we needed to put the puck in the back of the net on our special teams, especially for the number of power plays that we got,” said Knight, who was met throughout the night with a mix of cheers and boos. Knight played parts of two seasons with the CWHL’s Canadiennes in Montreal. “We were just short of executing. We’re going to take this back, work on it and it’s onto the next game.”
The biggest save of the period wasn’t even made by Desbiens, Söderberg made a save on Alexandra Labelle after Erin Ambrose made a pass from behind the net into the slot.
The physicality ramped up in the third with Jamie Lee Rattray taking a roughing penalty for hitting Cayla Barnes after the whistle. Anna Wilgren then laid a hit on Rattray. Later in the period, Marie-Philip Poulin laid a big hit on Sidney Morin leading to Hannah Bilka coming in and hitting Poulin then Kati Tabin stood up for her captain and went after Bilka with a couple of cross checks, which was the only penalty called on the sequence.
Montreal and Boston will renew hostilities on January 5 in Seattle when both teams will play in the first game of the PWHL’s Takeover Tour. It is the next game for both teams.
Notes
- Montreal’s power play is now 0/18 over their last five games, and Cheverie shook up the two units. Cayla Barnes is now the quarterback on the top unit with Lina Ljungblom, Poulin, Laura Stacey, and Jennifer Gardiner. Erin Ambrose was on the second unit with Maureen Murphy, Kati Tabin, Abby Boreen, and Kristin O’Neill. The new look units didn’t score but Cheverie was happy with the chances they created and said they generated momentum despite it being the first game they were together.
- Montreal went with the same lineup that beat Minnesota on Saturday
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