Thanks to three power-play goals, the Montreal team defeated the Minnesota team 4-3 on Thursday in a Women’s Professional Hockey League (FPHL) game played at the Verdun Auditorium.
It was the first time Montreal scored more than one power play goal in the same game.
Kristin O’Neill scored the first and last goals of the game for Montreal. Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey also found the back of the net and Elaine Chuli stopped 25 shots.
Grace Zumwinkle, Kelly Pannek and Brooke Bryant scored for Minnesota. Maddie Rooney stopped 33 shots for her team.
Action resumed in the LPHF, after a break for the Women’s World Hockey Championship, won by Canada .
The two teams had not played since March 24, when Minnesota defeated Montreal in a shootout, 3-2 .
It was the start of the final stretch of this first regular season of the LPHF, with 15 games still to be played on the schedule.
After winning gold with Canada, Poulin returned to the Montreal team lineup. She had missed her team’s last three games due to injury.
Forward Ann-Sophie Bettez, however, has been placed on the long-term injured list.
Ninth goal for Poulin
Chuli had to be alert from the first minute of play. The Minnesota squad applied pressure quickly, but Chuli followed the puck well to block a shot that deflected in front of her.
Montreal took advantage of the game’s first power play at 13:37 when Brittyn Fleming sent the puck into the stands.
O’Neill made Fleming pay nearly a minute later. At 12:38, the forward, who was positioned to the left of the net, directed a shot and recovered her own rebound before Rooney could stop the puck.
With just a few minutes left in the opening frame, Minnesota had its first good offensive zone sequence since the first minute of the game.
After two great saves from Chuli and a successful clearance from the Montreal team, the visitors shot themselves in the foot by being punished again.
Poulin completed a superb three-way passing play to score with 2:08 left in the first period. Erin Ambrose and Stacey set up Poulin’s goal.
It was Poulin’s ninth goal of the season.
Mikyla Grant-Mentis was assessed two penalties in the first four minutes of play in the second period.
Minnesota took advantage of the forward’s second penalty when Zumwinkle scored at 15:01 of play. Zumwinkle scored on a slap shot from the right faceoff circle.
Bottled up in its territory for a while, Montreal saw Pannek redirect a point shot behind Chuli and tie the score at 9:23 of the second period.
Bryant then completed a nice pass from Taylor Heise on a power play to give his team the lead for the first time in the game less than two minutes later.
Chuli kept the score at 3-2 after 40 minutes, making a big pad save with 30 seconds left in the second period. Minnesota went three-on-one in the offensive zone, but Chuli came out of her half-circle to challenge the shot.
Montreal was the more threatening team in the third period. However, the Montreal team’s shots were often lacking in precision or were easy to catch for Rooney, who was hardly hindered in her work.
Montreal pulled Chuli for an extra attacker with less than three minutes left in regulation. Stacey tied the game with a hard one-timer with 2:23 left.
It was Stacey’s seventh goal this season.
O’Neill then brought the crowd to its feet with 45 seconds left, scoring his second of the game, again on the power play.
