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Abby Roque scored early in overtime to give the Montreal Victoire a thrilling 3-2 victory over the Ottawa Charge in Game 1 of the all-Canadian Walter Cup final Thursday night in Laval, Quebec.
Trailing 2-1 with just 18 seconds left in regulation, Montreal faced a nerve-wracking neutral zone faceoff and watched one of their key players, forward Laura Stacey, leave the game in visible pain with a leg injury. Yet within less than three minutes, Roque’s second goal of the night sealed the win for the Victoire.
Maggie Flaherty’s shot deflected off Stacey, who had returned for overtime, before landing on Roque’s stick and bouncing up off her face mask into the net 2:29 into the extra period.
“Maggie made a great play to me to try and tip it back door and somehow, face and in,” Roque said. “I’ll take it.”
Roque’s two goals were her first career postseason tallies in the PWHL, and she admitted she couldn’t quite believe she scored with her face mask.
“I just saw the puck go right between my eyes and was like ‘OK,’” she said. “Then somehow it went in. I was just hoping, I was like ‘that’s a good goal, right?’”
Montreal’s Nicole Gosling also played a huge role, netting the tying goal with just 2.1 seconds left in regulation. Marie-Philip Poulin fired a shot on goal, and after Ottawa’s Maureen Murphy got a stick on the puck in the crease, Gosling made a sprawling effort to push it past goalie Gwyneth Philips.
“I knew that there was only like 18 seconds left when the faceoff occurred, so I was just trying to get up there,” Gosling said. “I saw the puck sitting there and took a nice little whack at it. I wasn’t sure if it was the goal horn or the buzzer.”
Gosling’s goal came with Montreal using an extra attacker and just after Stacey exited the game heading for the locker room. The crowd at Place Bell fell silent as Stacey was hurt following a collision with Ottawa’s Gabbie Hughes along the boards, with her knee taking the impact.
Surprisingly, Stacey returned for overtime. “Abby and I looked up on the ice and we saw her taking a hot lap,” said Montreal goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens. “We’re like ‘well, there she is.’ She’s a fighter, she’s somebody that’s willing to do anything it takes to help her team.”
Ottawa nearly won late when Brianne Jenner’s empty-net shot hit the post with less than two minutes remaining in the third period.
When asked about the final moments of Game 1, Desbiens called it “resiliency,” while Gosling described it as “character.” Desbiens added, “And a whole lot of heart.” She finished with 23 saves in the win.
Earlier in the game, Ottawa’s Rebecca Leslie scored twice to give the Charge leads of 1-0 and 2-1. Leslie’s second goal came with just over four minutes left in the third period as she opened the five-hole on Desbiens after moving laterally entering the zone.
Montreal tied the game at 1-1 twelve minutes into the third when Nadia Mattivi passed the puck low before finding Roque, who scored from the slot. Mattivi earned her first playoff point in her first playoff game after being signed to a 10-day contract Thursday following a stretch on Montreal’s reserve roster.
Leslie opened the scoring at 16:56 of the second period, converting a rebound after a 3-on-1 rush.
Ottawa, who lost Game 1 to Boston in their semifinal before winning three straight, will try to bounce back in Game 2 Saturday afternoon.
“We didn’t get the outcome, we were pretty darn close there, Montreal obviously gave a good push,” Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod said. “But really, so many elements of our game we just executed incredibly well.”
“At the end of the day, it’s a five-game series, and you just park this one and you move on to the next.”
The Walter Cup final series resumes Saturday, May 16, with Game 2 in Montreal at 2 p.m. ET, followed by Games 3 and 4 in Ottawa on May 18 and 20, with a potential Game 5 to be determined.