The Quebec superstar scored her fourth of the season late in the third period to secure another win for Montreal beating New York 3-2 in Laval at Bell Place on Tuesday night.
Montreal also got goals from Leah Lum and Gabrielle David who also scored their first goals of the season respectively while New York countered with goals from Jamie Bourbonnais and Jesse Eldrige who continues to be a serious threat for her team.
” It was a major focus point for us to really control our emotions,” said Kori Cheverie in her post-game press conference. ” I think our group gets amped up to score so that is something we are still working on.”
The majority of the first period of the game was extremely tight with both teams getting good chances and as we saw in New York last week a very physical game and it didn’t take long for the first penalty to be called less than five minutes into the game when New York defenseman Oliva Zafuto got called for tripping.
” We had lots of character to stick with it and we knew they were coming off a long road trip and they had nothing to lose and a lot went wrong for them today and we had to stick with our gameplan.”
Gabrielle David opened the scoring with 3:10 on the clock as she got an amazing pass from Jillian Dempsey and was able to beat New York goaltender Abigal Levy who got the start in goal tonight over Corinne Schroder to the delight of the 6332 fans in attendance.
It didn’t take long for Montreal to double its lead as 10 seconds later Leah Lum playing defense tonight instead of forward blasted a shot from the point that went so fast Levy barely had time to look before it was into the back of the net.
” A lead in general is a skill that teams need to work on and practice on keeping it and how to play and keep the momentum with it because the momentum shifts so quickly in this league and the players are amazing and they can score quickly and even the goalies are amazing and we need to find a way to manage it.”
The visitors got within one eight minutes into the second period with Tereza Vanisova in the box for goalie interference for running into Levy Bourbonnais got a slick pass from Alex Carpenter and one-timed a puck past Anne Renee Desbiens.
It didn’t take long for New York to equalize as 11 seconds into the final frame off a faceoff win Eldridge got the puck and was able to pull off a quick shot that fooled Desbiens to make it 2-2.
With 6:14 left in regulation Poulin jumped on the ice and managed to get a perfect feed from Maureen Murphy and was able to beat Levy sneaking the puck past her for the game-winning goal.
After the game, Cheverie was asked what she thought of David’s performance after beating scratched for the home opener last Saturday in Verdun against Boston.
” I mean that’s what you want in terms of a response from a player and Gab is a great player and for her to score tonight I am just so happy for her and for her to comeback and she could have honestly gone the other direction and the way she came out with that kind of intensity and grit and she’s a great player and she will continue to be a great player for us and always happy to see that type of response.”
She was also asked about the game-winning goal which we will probably see on highlight reels for quite some time and her coach was elated for her.
” Obviously when it’s Poulin in Laval in Quebec it means a lot more and the electric crowd and they were awesome tonight and when a player like that scores with a nice touch and great pass from Murphy and that is what you want to see from your top line and to be clutch in those moments I was really proud of them for that.”
David who was featured in the post-game press conference was asked in French about the feeling of scoring her professional goal in her home rink.
” It was kinda emotional”, she responded. ” I had to move on quickly and I did it for the team and I played for the logo on my jersey.”
I was able to ask Poulin if she feels the 2-0 lead is the worst lead to have in a hockey game and both players laughed it off stating ” Clearly not”.
” I think that is the beauty of this league”, Poulin told me. ” There is no safe lead and we need to work on keeping it and obviously they came back tonight and it shows how deep this league really is and how competitive it actually is.”
Poulin was asked how she felt scoring the game-winning goal after being snubbed last weekend in overtime and she was completely elated with it.
” It feels good and it was a great play by Vanisova and Murphy and they played unbelievably tonight and Vanni played so physically she got the puck and Murphy saw me and a great play there and it was a great team win.”
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