Ahead of her fifth Olympic games, Montreal Victoire and Team Canada captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored once again in Vancouver against the PWHL's Goldeneyes, nearly 16 years after she scored Canada's gold-medal winning goal in 2010.
Canada’s “Captain Clutch” and Montreal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin is headed to her fifth Olympic Winter Games this week in Italy — though her Olympic journey began in Vancouver.
At 18, Poulin was the youngest wearing the maple leaf in the 2010 tournament, but her conduct on the ice was unlike the efforts usually seen from rookies. Poulin scored five goals and seven points — including both goals in Canada’s 2-0 gold medal victory at home over the United States.
In the years since, Poulin has had a storied international career, including Olympic gold at Sochi 2014 and Beijing 2022 where she scored the gold-medal game winning goal in each, along with a silver medal in Pyeongyang in 2018. She also has four gold medals, eight silver, and one bronze at the IIHF World Championships for Canada, and was named the Northern Star Award recipient for the best Canadian athlete in 2022.
One of the first three players to sign with the new PWHL Montreal team back in 2023, Poulin has served as captain since the puck first dropped on the team now known as the Victoire. She leads all-time team scoring with 34 goals and 27 assists for 61 points in 62 games. Even though she missed three games in the inaugural 2023-24 season, she finished tied for second in scoring with national teammate Sarah Nurse, and in the 2024-25 season she was named the Billie Jean King Most Valuable Player, PWHL Forward of the Year, and earned the PWHL Top Goal Scorer Award with 19.
Two of those 19 were scored at Rogers Arena, where Poulin and the Montreal Victoire faced the Toronto Sceptres on the 2024-25 Takeover Tour. The Victoire would win 4-2 as a sell-out Vancouver crowd cheered on, excited to see professional women’s hockey in their city once again, even if for one night only.
Nearly a year later, Poulin returned for her first game against the Vancouver Goldeneyes, one of the two 2025-26 PWHL expansion teams on North America’s west coast. It was the Victoire’s first meeting with their new coastal foe, and they took the win that rainy afternoon in Vancouver with a score of 4-2.
“It’s always special,” Poulin commented postgame on returning to Vancouver, “I was lucky enough to go through the Olympic experience here in 2010.”
Poulin opened the scoring for her team at the Pacific Coliseum, giving Montreal an early lead that never lapsed throughout. She was followed by Dara Greig’s first career PWHL goal, Natálie Mlýnková making it 3-1 after Vancouver’s Sophie Jaques got the Goldeneyes within one, and Shiann Darkangelo’s first for the Victoire.
“Last year again [with] the PWHL Tour, there was no surprise that Vancouver was going to get a team. […] Playing in front of such a great crowd, it’s been amazing. Obviously for us we’re here for a work trip so pretty happy that we got that win tonight.”
“I think we were pretty lucky to play in Vancouver and Seattle last year,” Poulin commented further during the press conference, “seeing both rinks packed to support the PWHL it was something very special.”
“When we watch on TV, we’re fans of our sport. We’re excited to watch the other teams play and you see people there supporting them and supporting our league as well. So we all just grow together. It’s been amazing to see what Seattle and Vancouver are doing.”
In the weeks since their first meeting in Vancouver, Montreal have gone 5-2-0-4, including a 1-0 win at Videotron Centre in Quebec City against the Goldeneyes, their first regulation win since the December 20 meeting between the same teams. Poulin has 10 points in her last 10 games, including clutch overtime performances against the two-time defending champion Minnesota Frost.
Poulin has seen the women’s hockey landscape change drastically throughout her career, which started in the 2007-08 season in the Canadian Women’s Hockey League (CWHL), playing senior hockey with the Montreal Stars as a 16-year-old rookie. She played for the Dawson Blues the following season while also an associated player for the Stars.
Entering the NCAA sphere in the 2010-11 season, Poulin joined the Boston Univeristy Terriers. Though she missed the NCAA 2013-14 season with national team duties, Poulin rejoined the team as captain the following season, leading the team in points with 54 (27 goals, 27 assists) in 32 games, along the way to the Terriers’ fourth consecutive Hockey East title. Poulin would rejoin the CWHL after that NCAA season, leaving Boston University scoring 181 points in 111 games — still third overall in Terriers women’s hockey program history.
Drafted by the Stars in 2015, Poulin would join the team just after their rebrand to Les Canadiennes de Montréal. From her three seasons with the team, Poulin won the league MVP in all three years, and joined the PWHPA after the 2019 collapse of the CWHL. In 93 CWHL games, Poulin had 184 points (87 goals, 97 assists) and in 24 PWHPA games, she had 38 points (17 goals, 21 assists).
As Poulin leads Team Canada onto the ice for her fifth Olympic Games this week, she hopes to tie the Olympic hockey medaling record of five — currently held by Canadians Hayley Wickenheiser and Jayna Hefford. With three gold and one silver, Poulin hopes to add another gold medal to her record while wearing the maple leaf, reminiscent of what she accomplished that late February 16 years ago, showing shades of the Captain Clutch Canada knows her as today.