After Team Canada won the Women’s World Championship Gold Medal, the five national team members who returned to Montreal’s team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League were full of confidence. Beating Team USA in a tournament where Canada fell to them in the preliminary round is a definite confidence builder.
How Desbiens, Poulin, O’Neil, Stacey, and Ambrose Are Making a Difference
Before the World Championships, Ann-Renée Desbiens had the annoying habit of committing one blunder per game. She would, for instance, come out of her net and turn the puck over, leading to a goal; maybe it was nerves, maybe she didn’t trust her defense enough, but whatever it was, it’s gone now. In her team’s 23rd game of the season, the goaltender got her first shutout, beating Ottawa 2-0, and she looked in perfect control right up to the end. Ottawa thought they had broken through, but after a coach’s challenge, it was ruled Desbiens had been interfered with.
In early March, captain Marie-Philip Poulin suffered a lower-body injury and missed PWHL Montreal’s last three games before the World Championship. She didn’t miss a single game at the World’s, though, making her return to action in Canada’s first preliminary game. After missing almost a month of action, she looked rusty and tentative on her skates early in the tournament, but you could see her improve in each game, gearing up for the showdown with the USA in which she got two goals and was named player of the game.
Related: Canada Defeats US in Overtime to Win Women’s Gold
She put her working boots back on in Montreal and made her way to the top of the league scorers with 22 points. We’ll see if her one-point lead holds until the end of the season. Natalie Spooner is in second place, but she still has three games left. Even if it doesn’t hold though, Poulin has shown how much of a leader and an inspiration she can be on any team, once again.
No matter how hard she worked, Kristin O’Neil just wasn’t getting the bounces in Montreal before the international tournament. As a depth player on the Canadian roster, though, the results came. In seven games, she scored two goals and added three assists. Back in league play, she finally got the bounces and was rewarded for her hard work. An integral part of Montreal’s power play which is finally clicking, O’Neil was all smiles in the post-game press conference on Wednesday. When asked if it was a coincidence that the power play was much better since she’s been added to it, O’Neil laughed a bit before replying:
I don’t think there’s any good answer for this but I think we’ve been meeting with the coaches a lot, I’m grateful to be on the power play and I think we’re really clicking right now, I’m not sure if that’s a coincidence or not but you know, we’ve managed to find each other those last few games and I think it’s really helping our team find success.
Asked if she had more confidence after coming back from the World Championship and if something had changed in her game, the diminutive winger explained:
Yeah I don’t think too much changed, it’s just kind of a mindset thing. I went into the World’s with the mentality of trying to be as offensive as possible and I think as a line at the World’s playing with two college players [Danielle Serdachny and Julia Gosling] they kind of gave me a fresh perspective and I think we were able to play like us and it has really paid up for us as a line. Having that success at the World’s just kind of continued back here in Montreal and I’m really grateful for the teammates that I have and that came with me at the World’s because they also gave me a lot of confidence. They were always telling me, you know, this confidence can come back to Montreal and I’m just really grateful to continue to play with that confidence for this team as well.
After the last home game of the season, she was recruited to take part in the victory dance since Leah Lum wasn’t in uniform. Laughing on the podium, she revealed she was told she was dancing and was a little lost out there.
And they’re dancing in Verdun! 3rd star: Murphy 2nd star: KO 1st star: Desbiens #PWHL #LPHF pic.twitter.com/OK7DWcL0so
— Karine Hains (@KarineHains) April 25, 2024
As for Laura Stacey, she had no confidence issue whatsoever this season, and she’s been the revelation of the year for the Montreal fans. In a less prominent role with Team Canada, most people didn’t realize just how efficient she could be on the ice. She’s got a lot of speed and a surprisingly powerful slapshot, which has been used much more often since returning to Montreal. In the team’s second-to-last game of the season against Ottawa, she scored her 10th goal of the season, leading all Montreal skaters in that category, one goal in front of Poulin.
Finally, Erin Ambrose has been on fire these last two weeks. In the last four games, she has a goal and six assists and was even named the first star of the week in the league after registering four assists in one single game, becoming the first player to get four points in a game in league history. After starting the season with Mariah Keopple as her partner, she’s now patrolling the blue line alongside Kati Tabin, who seems to enjoy the partnership and the added ice time. In the game against Ottawa, Ambrose spent over 31 minutes on the ice and didn’t even look like she broke a sweat.
If Montreal is to go far in the playoffs, they’ll need to have this well-oiled Erin Ambrose skating the blue line and quarterbacking the power play. She’s mastered the art of perfect passes to Stacey for one-timers, and it’s become a key play in coach Kori Cheverie’s playbook. Daniele Sauvageau made the right decision when she drafted Ambrose as her first-round pick back in September.
Fight to the Finish in the Standings
With this latest win over Ottawa, Montreal took a three-point lead over Toronto at the top of the standings. However, Toronto has two games in hand and could get back on level terms if they win in regulation over New York on Sunday, Apr. 28. While New York is in last place and already eliminated from playoff contention, they’ll still want to get some points out of the match to have the first pick in the upcoming draft in Minnesota. Unlike in the National Hockey League, there is no draft lottery in the PWHL; the team that gathers the most points after being eliminated gets the first pick.
As for Montreal, they have a single game left in their regular season, a duel with Boston at the Tsongas Center on Saturday, May 4. Hilary Knight and Co. will be fighting for their life as a loss or a win in overtime or the shootout would mean elimination. With so little time left and five teams who still have all to play for, the PWHL is keeping us guessing right up to the very end of this inaugural season.