Montreal outlasts New York in penalty-filled affair

Montreal cemented its spot at the top of the PWHL standings after another win on the road in Connecticut against New York.

Jillian Dempsey scored her first of the season while Montreal also got goals from Sarah Bujold, Gabrielle David, and of course, Marie-Phillipe Poulin who were able to outlast their opponents.

“We didn’t execute like we wanted to execute tonight,” Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie said. “but at the end of the day we have our three points. There were some things we liked, others not as much, but we need to focus on the positive as we play three games in five days.”

Dempsey opened the scoring less than six minutes into the contest as she was able to get by two New York players and tucked the puck past Corinne Schroder with a nice deke.

“We know it’s an important week for the standings.” Marie Phillipe Poulin said post-game. “We know what we need to do. We need to find a way to be there for 60 minutes as a team. We are happy with where we are, but we are not satisfied.”

Montreal doubled its lead five minutes later as Sarah Bujold got a pass from Catherine Dubois who raced down the wing and the East Coast native had no issues putting the puck into the back of the net. With less than five minutes left in the first period, David made it 3-0 as she found herself on a 2-on-1 with Poulin and with a backhand beat Schroder top corner.

With 3:48 on the clock Tereza Vanisova was called for body checking and New York scored 30 seconds later on the powerplay to make it 3-1 and reduce Montreal’s lead to two.

The second period featured six penalties in total for both clubs and New York made it 3-2 scoring their second powerplay goal of the contest with five minutes left in the period as Abby Roque tipped a shot from Ella Shelton past Anne Renee Desbiens.

Four minutes into the third Poulin restored Montreal’s two-goal lead as she got a great feed from Laura Stacey who was behind the net and beat Schroeder in close with a quick shot. New York made it a one-goal game with 11:54 on the clock as Jessie Eldridge scored on the powerplay once again deflecting a shot from Shelton.

That was as close as New York would get as Montreal hung on for the win and will now travel to Toronto to face a team that has now won eight games in a row after beating Boston 3-1 on Wednesday night as well.

Only 700 fans made the trip to Bridgeport to watch the game which so far is the lowest attendance recorded this season and the first time a game has less than 1000 fans.

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