Marie Phillipe Poulin hat trick leads Montreal past New York

Montreal concluded its opening three-game road trip on Wednesday night in the Big Apple beating New York 5-2 and will go home with five out of a possible nine points.

After being shut out last weekend in St Paul Montreal was back in action at UBS Arena Wednesday night beating New York 5-2 thanks to Marie Phillipe Poulin who finally got the monkey off her back by scoring a hat trick while Elaine Chuli got her first start and win for the club making 30 saves in the process.

“It feels good”, Poulin told me on the post-game Zoom call. ” I wanted the win and even with the slow start we stuck together and found a way to win.”

Also worth noting was the performance of Catherine Dubois who was just signed to a 10-day contract from the reserves and also got on the scoresheet.

“I couldn’t have asked for a better performance”, Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie said in her post-game press conference with the Montreal media. ” It’s amazing to see a player who hasn’t been playing in a while come in and perform the way that she did and her style of play was needed and her ability to go to the net and truly she is a fearless hockey player and that was something our group fed off tonight and she had a major impact on the game.”

“It was really important for our group”, Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie told me. ” We stuck to the details that we were talking about all game all the way until the end and our group stuck to the gameplan and we were rewarded for it.”

The visitors were a bit slow out of the gates but five minutes in you could see the tide changing and Montreal starting to take control of the game dominating in possession and shots early on.

“With our group, it’s just about moving forward and we knew we weren’t going to let the score dictate how we play, and kudos to our group for sticking with it.”

New York opened the scoring eight minutes into the contest when Jessie Eldridge stole a puck off the skate of a Montreal defender, went in on a breakaway, and managed to beat Chuli top corner to make it 1-0.

Three minutes later the visitors responded when Erin Ambrose skating down the wing managed to pull off the perfect pass to Poulin who made no mistake putting the puck into the back of the net to knot the game at one.

“First of all, I think everything is a process and at the end of the day you need to continue to work and it was a beautiful pass from Ambrose and we had chances the entire game and everybody stepped up to earn this win.”

Catherine Dubois gave Montreal the 2-1 lead midway into the second period on the powerplay with New York forward Emma Woods in the box for delay of the game and she managed to beat New York goaltender Corrine Schroder by jamming the puck past her and not giving up until the puck was in.

“We practiced a lot together and we tried to build that chemistry and today was a good start and she really took her spot tonight and she was already ready and she scored a huge powerplay goal and it’s great to see and I am very happy for her.”

With 44 seconds left in the second period, Montreal was penalized when Kati Tabin was called for slashing and less than 30 seconds into the third Ella Shelton tied the game on the powerplay at two with a quick shot from the point that fooled Chuli as it looked like it got tipped but after the review, the goal was given to Shelton.

Four minutes later Kennedy Marchment scored to give Montreal the 3-2 lead as she was able to finish a great player with linemate Gabrielle David and beat Schroder with a quick shot. Less than two minutes later Poulin scored her second goal of the net also finishing a great passing play with Maureen Murphy before slipping the puck into the net to double Montreal’s lead.

“It was a great play from Murph”, Poulin told the Montreal media, and with 1:07 left in regulation and the net empty for New York, she completed the hat-trick shooting the puck into the empty cage to the delight of some local Montreal fans in the stands waving the Canadian flag.

After the game, I had a chance to ask Chuli what she thought of her performance and she was pleased to get the win and three points heading back home to face Boston in their home opener on Saturday afternoon.

“I felt pretty good”, she told me. ” I just wanted to give my team a chance to win and it’s been a while since I have been in a game and just tried to keep it simple and we won so I am very happy.”

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