Victoire stage unimaginable comeback to take lead in Walter Cup Finals
LAVAL, Que. — The Montreal Victoire staged an unimaginable comeback on Thursday night time to earn a 3-2 extra time win over the Ottawa Cost, paced by a pair of targets from Abby Roque.
And the winner went in off Roque’s cage.
Victoire ahead Laura Stacey needed to be helped off the ice late within the third after writhing in ache, however returned to tip the game-winner — into Roque’s face — to present Montreal a 1-0 lead within the best-of-five Walter Cup Finals.
With 2.1 seconds to go and the Victoire trailing 2-1, rookie defender Nicole Gosling hammered house a rebound via a crowded net-front to tie issues as much as power extra time.
Simply second earlier, Stacey was bodychecked and fell awkwardly in opposition to the boards and he or she lay on the ice in clear ache. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin waved trainers over and later helped her spouse off the ice. It was heartbreaking to look at, and the sector fell quiet.
Seconds later, followers erupted as Gosling tied issues up on a play that began with Poulin throwing the puck towards the net-front, and that puck discovering its method into the again of the online.
Then in extra time, followers erupted once more as Stacey skated onto the ice and remained on the market, after which helped creator the game-winner.
This opening recreation of the primary all-Canadian Walter Cup Finals really had all of it.
It was Ottawa’s very personal Rebecca Leslie who scored the Cost’s first two targets on two lovely particular person efforts. She opened scoring late within the first with a toe-drag to seek out open area within the slot, then jumped on her personal rebound.
Roque tied issues up for Montreal with 7:48 to go, cashing in on an attractive cross-ice cross from Nadia Mattivi and beating Gwyneth Philips with a fast glove-side wrister.
Leslie’s second objective was textbook endurance as she delayed within the zone and peeled her method round a skirmish in entrance, then beat Ann-Renée Desbiens five-hole, giving her Cost the 2-1 lead.
Montreal pulled Desbiens and cashed in with the additional attacker, earlier than Roque’s game-winner in additional time.
And so started the battle between a pair of rivals situated a bit of greater than 200km from each other, between a pair of captains in Montreal’s Poulin and Ottawa’s Brianne Jenner, the long-time Group Canada teammates and frequent nationwide staff linemates.
Montreal cracked the Finals because of knocking off the two-time defending champions from Minnesota in a full 5 video games shortly after ending the common season atop the standings, whereas the Cost squeaked into the post-season with a win of their remaining recreation earlier than knocking off the higher-seeded Boston Fleet.
Subsequent up is Recreation 2 on Saturday again at Place Bell at 2 p.m. ET earlier than the sequence flips to Ottawa.
