It’s one of the oldest rivalries in hockey, and it took all of one game for the intensity between Toronto and Montreal to heat up in this brand-new league, too.
Toronto’s offence, which has been slow to hit its stride through three weeks of the campaign, finally found a little firepower in Montreal en route to a 4-3 shootout victory on Saturday. Toronto outshot Montreal 40-24, led by seven from Natalie Spooner and six from Sarah Nurse. It was Toronto’s best offensive showing of the young season so far, and it brought out the best from the other side too, as Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin entered the conversation for Goal of The Year when she tied the score at 3-3 with just 18 seconds left in regulation.
And then came the really fun part…
Get ready for some fun shootouts
Of the 15 league games played so far this season, nine have been decided by a single score and five have required extra time to solve. On Saturday, we got our first glimpse of the PWHL shootout format as Toronto and Montreal came down to the wire.
As outlined in the PWHL’s rulebook, a shootout gives each side five shots (unless the outcome is determined earlier in the shootout). A game that remains tied following those first five rounds will then take on a “sudden victory” format for as long as is necessary to decide a winner. And here’s the part that really piques our interest: There’s no limit on a player’s eligibility to shoot — she can try as many attempts as her coach sends her out for.
On Saturday in Montreal, head coach Kori Cheverie turned to Poulin for four of her team’s six shootout attempts. Unfortunately for the home side, she couldn’t pull off the win, however.
No. 29 scored on her third attempt to keep things tied after four rounds following Hannah Miller’s successful third-round attempt for Toronto, but couldn’t score again in the fifth as goaltenders stole the show. It was Toronto forward Lauriane Rougeau who cashed in the winning shot in the sixth round to pull off the 4-3 Toronto victory.
Ottawa enters pivotal busy stretch
Meanwhile, in the nation’s capital…
Thanks to weather-related travel complications, Ottawa has played the fewest games of any team so far, hitting the ice just three times through three weeks of the season. They’ll match that output in the span of just five days this week, hosting back-to-back home contests Tuesday and Wednesday against Toronto and Boston, respectively, before making the short trip to Montreal Saturday.
With the busy week ahead, Ottawa has an opportunity to make quite a jump in the early-season standings. They have yet to lose in regulation — the team lost twice in overtime on home ice and their lone regulation win was a 5-1 blowout in Toronto on Jan. 13. First-place Minnesota is the only other team that has yet to suffer a regulation loss this season.
Montreal takes its music seriously
No goal celebration is complete without the perfect soundtrack, and Montreal’s got a trio of tunes their fans will likely get to know pretty quickly. As Montreal forward Laura Stacey points out, the team selected a walkout song, a goal song, and a win song — and all three have at least a nod to the team’s French roots.
“Our walkout song is the Power of Love remix by Celine Dion because we wanted to have our French roots, our Quebec roots. And then it was just an amazing remix, so we were pretty fired up about that,” Stacey says.
“Our goal song is C’est La Vie [by Khaled] and we had a couple options. The game day ops, the producers, they played it for us with a horn going and then that song coming on and we kind of all lit up to it and really enjoyed it,” she explains.
Thanks to Poulin’s recent scoring spree, which has seen her tally three markers in the team’s last two home games for a league-leading total of six so far this season, fans have had the chance to get familiar with it.
As for the win song? That’s a remix of Dr. Créole’s Le Bal Masqué. They’ve only been able to blast it once so far, but Google it and it’ll be stuck in your head for a week. You’ve been warned.
“I don’t know, a bunch of the girls turned it on and had this choreographed dance and rhythm and everybody kind of jumped in on it. And it was just an easy answer … when all the fans are in the building and we can kind of dance and sing along to it,” says Stacey.
Home ice advantage? Not in this league
Not yet, anyway. Through 15 games of the inaugural season, only three matchups have been won by the home team. Two belong to Minnesota, which won its first two home games in dominant fashion — they shut out Montreal 3-0 in their home opener Jan. 6 and then beat Toronto 3-1 four days later. Minnesota has yet to lose in regulation at Xcel Energy Center — New York handed them their first home loss Jan. 14, which was settled in overtime.
Montreal is the only other PWHL team — and the lone Canadian club — to win a game on home ice this season, thanks to their 3-2 victory over New York at Place Bell last Tuesday.
Fast-paced season brings a learning curve
It was a sprint to even get the PWHL to the starting line, and as players are learning three weeks into this inaugural campaign, the pace has only gotten faster since puck drop.
As players start to get more comfortable within this new routine, Stacey shed some light on the physical side of things.
“I do think there is definitely an adjustment period for us all to make. We’ve sat out, in a sense, for four years — and yes, we’ve played, but the amount of games and maybe even the level of competition wasn’t the same as what we’re enjoying right now,” she says. “So, there’s definitely going to be a bit of that period of time where we need to learn, we need to figure out how to travel, we need to figure out how to properly take care of our bodies, because the next game is coming up in two or three days. And that’s all new to us.”
Stacey was sidelined one game already after sustaining a small injury but chalks it up to the increased intensity of games compared to PWHPA matchups as well as travel.
“I think with time a lot of us are going to know what to do a little bit better. We’re going to have better routines,” she says. “But I think for the first four games, we have to be pretty happy as a team with how we’ve gone through those road trips, how we’ve gotten through those ups and downs, while still performing at our best and trying to win along the way.”
Players soaking up fan experience, too
When Stacey’s not on the ice herself with Montreal, she’s watching her peers go head-to-head — and she’s loving what she’s seeing.
“Almost every night or every other night there’s PWHL hockey on some of the major networks and it’s amazing to watch it. The quality is incredible — the on-ice play is incredible, but the broadcasting and the advertising, it’s something we’ve really never had before,” she says.
And when she settles in for a night of hockey-watching, she’s just enjoying life as a fan.
“I don’t necessarily know if I’m watching from a perspective of like, ‘Oh, now I know what this team is doing,’” she says. “I think I’m honestly watching as a fan in terms of, this is amazing and how can we keep pushing this forward, right?’”
Upcoming games in the PWHL (all times ET):
Tuesday, Jan. 23: Toronto at Ottawa, 7 p.m. (on Sportsnet)
Wednesday, Jan 24: Boston at Ottawa, 7 p.m.; Montreal at Minnesota, 8 p.m.
Friday, Jan. 26: New York at Toronto, 7 p.m.
Saturday, Jan. 27: Ottawa at Montreal, 3:30 p.m.; Minnesota at Boston, 4 p.m. (on Sportsnet)
Sunday, Jan. 28: Minnesota at New York, 1 p.m. (on Sportsnet)
With files from Kristina Rutherford.