Taylor Wenczkowski’s triple OT goal leads Boston past Montreal in Game 2

PWHL Boston is heading home with a 2-0 lead in the series after winning another game in overtime this time lasting almost two games in the process.

PWHL Montreal suffered its second consecutive loss at home on Saturday night at Place Bell. They suffered another 2-1 heartbreaking triple overtime loss to Boston and now face elimination on Tuesday night.

“I wouldn’t say it’s not working.” Montreal head coach Kori Cheveire responded about the lack of goals in the series’ first two games. “To have over 50 shots in both games our team is doing something right and it’s playoff’s so players are tighter defensively and we need to bear down on our chances but I wouldn’t say there is anything that is going wrong.”

Taylor Wenczkowski sealed the win for the visitors with 8:16 remaining in the third overtime period once again getting another greasy goal off a rebound and being able to chip the puck past Anne Renee Desbiens who made 50 saves in the loss while her counterpart Aerin Frankel continued to be the story making 55 saves.

“We have a game coming up so we need to do what it takes to feel better,” Laura Stacey said when asked about how her body was feeling after playing almost two whole games in one night.

Boston had a better start to the game than in game one where they were dominated for most of the game and again it was the visitors opening the scoring eight minutes into the game when Amanda Pelkey took a shot from behind the net that bounced off Catherine Dubois and went past Desbiens into the net.

“We would like to get more offense,” Cheverie mentioned. “We are playing against a really hot goalie so I wouldn’t call it a problem and it’s three out of five so we have to move on from these last two games and learn what we can and I feel we got better from game one to game two in terms of playing overtime and that’s probably why it went so long but we will continue to get the work in.”

37 seconds into the second period Montreal went on the powerplay when Megan Keller was called for roughing and a minute and 20 seconds later Kristen O’Neil scored on the advantage as she was able to put a rebound shot past Frankel with the initial shot from Maureen Murphy to knot the game at one.

“Our plan is already in place of what we need to tackle for game three and it could have gone either way and you have to move forward and for us, I am not worried.”

No team was able to break the deadlock in the third period so the game shifted into overtime and again both teams had their chances but both Desbiens and Frankel were putting on a show and the American goaltender finished both games in Montreal with 110 saves and stole the game for Boston away from Montreal.

“It’s never easy and we try to use everybody as much as we can and I thought our players did great and it’s a whole other level in playoffs and I would love for everybody to contribute and it will happen just on different nights.”

Finally with 8:16 left on the clock in the third overtime period Wenczowski sealed the win for Boston as she was able to pick up a loose rebound in front of the net and get a quick shot from in close past Desbiens to end the game and put her team on the verge of reaching the PWHL Walter Cup Finals.

“They say when your body is giving out or when you don’t have anything physically is the moment when you need to pull through,” Stacey said. “You never know what you have left inside you and it hurts and it doesn’t feel nice but let’s keep pushing mentally to get through this.”

Stacey was also asked about the frustration of throwing everything at the net and the fact that it was more of a positive aspect than a negative one.

“Hockey is a pretty frustrating sport,” she responded. “We also love it and that’s why we do it and why we have been here for so long and we want to win hockey games and we want to score and beat Boston and obviously that is not happening at the moment but to put that many shots off as a team that hasn’t done that all year but in both games, we found a way and we battled and took it to three extra overtimes and we will keep pushing.”

Stacey added, “It stings tonight and we are going to let it sting, and tomorrow morning the sun will rise and it’s a new day and we are heading to Boston to get a win.”

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