PWHL Weekend Recap

Rebecca Labaj

Starting the weekend was Game 1 of the Montreal Victoire vs the Minnesota Frost. The Victoire chose to play the Frost in the opening round, poking the back-to-back champions, who came out fighting. In the first period it was Katy Knoll kicking off the scoring followed by Frost Captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield. It seemed the Frost had it all figured out, slowing the Victoire’s game, while doing what they do best on offence. 

But, the Victoire rallied over the intermission and came out in the second as a whole new team, pushing harder as the game became more physical. Getting Victoire on the board was Shiann Darkangelo, before the penalties began adding up for the Victoire. Late in the second, it was Laura Stacey erasing the Frost’s lead, though it didn’t take long for Grace Zumwinkle to take it back. As the period counted down, the physicality went up, as the Victoire laid a hit, leading to retaliation from the Frost, before a fight broke out at centre ice. Leading to a 5-minute major for Britta Curl-Salemme and a 2-minute minor for Abby Roque. The hit from Curl-Salemme has resulted in an additional game suspension, meaning she will not play in Game 2, on Tuesday night.

The Frost did an incredible job on the major-penalty kill allowing just one goal from Laura Stacey, well finding a short-handed goal from Sidney Morin, her first with the Frost to take back the lead. But it didn’t take long for the Victoire to even things back up as Laura Stacey completed her hat-trick, with the first-ever PWHL Playoff hat-trick. 

The teams continued back-and-forth, but neither found the finish in regulation, sending the match to overtime. In overtime, it was the Frost’s newest member Jincy Roese finding her first goal with the team, to give Minnesota the Series lead on the road, breaking their four-game losing streak from the last stretch of the regular season. 

The series continues Tuesday night, in Laval as the Victoire look to even the series, well the Frost look to take a 2-0 lead heading back to Minnesota. 

Heading back to Boston it was time for Game 2, as the Ottawa Charge looked to even the series on the road and they did exactly that. With Ronja Savolainen opening the scoring to take the lead heading into the second, despite Boston’s heavy efforts on offence. 

In the second the Charge came out firing as Fanuza Kadirova doubled Ottawa’s lead to give them some space. As the seconds counted down Megan Keller found Boston’s first of the game, closing the gap. 

In the third period Boston continued to push but Gwyneth Philips had the back end locked down, as the minutes continued counting down the Fleet pulled Aerin Frankel in hopes of a comeback, but it was the Charge taking advantage of the empty net as Gabbie Hughes sealed the win. 

The Fleet and Charge are now off until Friday May 8th, when the puck drops for Game 3 at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.