PWHL Snap Shots: Marie-Philip Poulin silences some silly criticism

Marie-Philip Poulin scored enough in one night to quiet the (silly) critics panicking about her production, Minnesota’s win streak came to an end, and Taylor Heise put up a pair top contenders to be the PWHL’s Goal of the Year.

Now a couple weeks into this inaugural season, Heise’s Minnesota club is comfortably atop the standings, despite suffering that first loss. The standings are a touch skewed, though, since both Boston and Ottawa have played just two games apiece compared to the four played by Toronto, Minnesota, New York and Montreal. (A matchup between Boston and Ottawa was postponed last week due to dismal weather.)

Speaking of dismal, Toronto suffered two losses last week and leads that category, with three total, but with games coming up on Wednesday and Saturday, they’ll have a chance to claw their way up to .500. There are five games on the docket this week, including tonight’s matchup as New York visits Montreal, a 7 p.m. ET puck drop on Sportsnet.

Here are your weekly PWHL Snap Shots, including Laura Stacey’s thoughts on one of the most viral moments the league has produced so far, and why her Montreal team might buy matching bracelets.  

Heise goal debate settled … kind of

In Wednesday’s 3-1 win over Toronto, Taylor Heise had three points, including two Goal of the Year candidates.

She got Minnesota on the board with two minutes to go in the first period when she flew down the left wing and blew around Renata Fast, a defender quick enough to live up to her last name. Heise cut toward the net, splitting Fast and fellow defender Allie Munroe, then fired the puck past goalie Kristen Campbell.

For about 12 minutes of play, there was no question the goal was the nicest in the PWHL’s short history, and then Heise went and turned it into a debate.

Halfway through the second, she found herself alone in the offensive zone and put on a show, changing up her speed, shifting her upper body, delaying just in time to make Campbell commit to her left, and easily finding the back of the net. It was downright unfair.

To settle the question of which goal was more impressive, we consulted the league’s leading goal-scorer, Heise’s teammate, Grace Zumwinkle. 

“Hmm,” Zumwinkle said, giving the matter the consideration it deserves. “I would probably have to say the first one, just because she was weaving between players, where her second was more of a breakaway. But I mean, you can’t go wrong with either. If I absolutely had to vote, though, I would say the first one.”

Poulin is more than okay

Marie-Philip Poulin was without a goal through two whole games to kick off this season, and some took to social media to wonder whether the most clutch scorer in Canadian hockey history had lost her spark.

“You can’t help but laugh,” Ottawa forward, Emily Clark, who’s played alongside Poulin on Team Canada for nearly a decade, said of the criticism. “I think it’s great how much engagement there’s been on social media, good bad and everything in between. People want to create storylines. But I also think it’s great that MPP just proved that she’s the GOAT.”

In Montreal’s third game of the season, Poulin had a hat trick, including an empty-netter, pacing her team in a 5-2 win over New York.   

Poulin was also named the PWHL’s first star of the week. Her four points rank third overall in the league.

“She’s incredible, day in, day out,” Clark said. “I don’t think a lot of us ever doubted that.”

Sad start in Toronto

There isn’t much in the way of good news for PWHL Toronto fans these days. The team got dominated in the Battle of Ontario on Saturday. (Is it even a battle if Ottawa comes to town and leaves with a 5-1 win?) And Natalie Spooner’s lone goal was Toronto’s first-ever at home after the team was shut out 4-0 in its home opener against New York.

Aside from Spooner’s goal, the sellout crowd at Mattamy Athletic Centre didn’t have much to cheer about on Saturday, and they also couldn’t buy any gear to sport to support their team. Season’s ticket holders got an email on Friday that included this detail, most of which was in bold: “Due to selling out last game, there will unfortunately be no merchandise sales at tomorrow’s game as we await restock shipments. We apologize for any inconvenience that this may cause.” 

At 1-3, Toronto has suffered the most losses of any team, but they’re still a point ahead of 1-1 Boston, who have two games in hand. Toronto has the edge by a point since they won in regulation, while Boston’s win came in OT.

Ottawa’s team-bonding experience

A storm hit Boston on the day Ottawa was set to travel there for a game, and though the team made it to the airport, delays mounted until the flight was cancelled and their tilt with PWHL Boston was postponed.

Players were at the airport “more than five hours,” Clark said, but it wasn’t all bad. “A positive out of it is we have a lot of fun together, and if we can manage to have a good time even when we’re dealing with a crappy travel day, I think that’s a good sign. Some good team culture in the making. We had the cards out, we had the dice game Perudo going, some fun conversations you wouldn’t otherwise have without time being locked in a secured gate.”

Credit goes to forward Natalie Snodgrass for travelling with Perudo and cards. May her example be a lesson to us all.

New York ends Minnesota’s streak

It was looking like Minnesota was on its way to a fourth straight win on Sunday, leading New York 2-0 after the first period. But New York scored three unanswered goals — including Emma Woods’ winner with just 59 seconds to go in overtime — to complete the comeback and give the league’s top team its first loss.

The one constant on all three of those comeback goals was Ella Shelton, who scored the first-ever goal in league history. The defender not only assisted on all three of New York’s goals Sunday, but also contributed to every New York goal scored last week.

Shelton leads the league with six points. 

Attendance check

Of the five games held over the last week, two were sellouts, in Toronto and Montreal. UBS Arena in New York hosted the smallest crowd, with 2,201 in attendance, while Minnesota’s Xcel Energy Center saw the biggest turnout, when 7,951 showed up for a Sunday afternoon tilt.

That’s 20,521 fans in attendance in the last week, an average of 4,104.2 per game.

Total attendance through 10 games is 50,856.

Montreal’s long-awaited home opener delivers

Montreal had the last home-opener of the season, hosting Boston in front of a sold-out crowd of 3,245 at Verdun Auditorium.

Amanda Pelkey had the OT winner for Boston, but it was Poulin who scored first in the extra frame, just 20 seconds in. Her goal was called back after a video review, though, because forward Laura Stacey was called for goaltender interference.

“That was a tough way to end,” said Stacey, who scored earlier in the contest and was named the game’s second star. “But we talked about it a lot at the end of the game. Yes we lost — we lost in OT to boot — but honestly that game was so much more than a 3-2 loss in overtime. It was seeing all those kid’s faces. I’ve never felt that energy. And honestly when we scored, the place erupted. I wish it would’ve erupted when they were all saying ‘Goal! Goal! Goal!’ [in overtime], it would’ve been amazing if it ended up a goal. But it was a night we’re gonna remember for the rest of our lives.”

Montreal did celebrate MPP’s overtime tally like they’d won at home and so did their fans, and “Le Bal Masque” the team’s victory song blasted over the PA. But then the goal was called back.    

Stacey has watched the replay “probably too many times,” she said. “All of us in our locker room think it was a good goal and wanted it to be a goal and I think that whole arena felt the same way, but at the end of the day that’s not how it turned out and we gotta regroup and get them next time.”

All-stars announced

The 24 all-stars set to take part in the PWHL’s three-on-three showcase during NHL All-Star festivities in Toronto are all the usual suspects, like Poulin, Shelton, Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, and Sarah Nurse.

The PWHL and NHL announced the rosters and details on Monday.

On Thursday, Feb. 1, the PWHLers will play a 20-minute game, featuring King vs. Kloss, teams named after legendary sporting-equality advocates, Billie Jean King and Ilana Kloss. 

The coaches should bring some grudge match intensity to the proceedings, too. Team King is coached by former Team Canada captain Cassie Campbell-Pascall, while former Team USA captain Meghan Duggan coaches Team Kloss.

“She’s gay, Marcus”

Montreal’s first win of the season came over Ottawa, and saw Stacey and Poulin, who are engaged, celebrate a goal that Stacey scored and Poulin assisted.

The moment prompted ‘X’ user @TicTacTomar to post the goal and aftermath and write: “score a goal and celly with your fiance.” 

Another ‘X’ user named Marcus then asked, “Her fiancée is there? Didn’t see him behind the glass.” Which elicited the viral response from another user: “She’s gay, Marcus.”

All of it really blew up.  

“It’s definitely made us laugh more than a few times,” said Stacey, who can’t believe the moment got so big. “Our teammates bug us about it quite a bit, but it’s funny… We don’t really like to be in the spotlight and we’re a little bit shy sometimes about the personal side of things, but I think at the end of the day it’s amazing to see what this league has created and how many people are talking about it and how far this game is truly growing. It makes us laugh and it makes us shake our heads sometimes, but I think in the grand picture and zooming out a little bit, it’s all positive for women’s hockey.”

There are now “She’s gay Marcus” bracelets being sold.

“Our team wants to get them, so we’ll see,” Stacey said, with a laugh. “I mean, I’d probably have to get one, but I’m not sure I’d be wearing it...”

Upcoming games in the PWHL (all times ET):

Tuesday, Jan. 16: New York at Montreal, 7 pm (on Sportsnet) 

Wednesday, Jan. 17: Minnesota at Ottawa, 7 pm; Boston at Toronto, 7 pm

Saturday, Jan. 20: New York at Boston, 12:30 pm (on Sportsnet); Toronto at Montreal, 8 pm