Playing against her former team, Elaine Chuli put on a fantastic display. She allowed the Toronto Sceptres to skate away from the Bell Centre with the three points, leapfrogging over the Montreal Victoire in the standings.
Elaine Chuli spent two seasons with the Montreal Victoire, and she was well-liked by fans as she backed up Ann-Renee Desbiens, playing 19 games for Kori Cheverie’s team. When the Toronto Sceptres visited Place Bell earlier this month, I was surprised to see she wasn’t given the start, but Troy Ryan had another plan, giving her the start on the biggest stage of them all, at the Bell Centre.
On Saturday afternoon in Montreal, as the visitors were introduced, the cheers were polite, although a bit more intense for members of the national team. But Chuli’s welcome rivalled the one received by Emma Maltais as fans let the goaltender know she hadn’t been forgotten, and they still loved the “Chu-chu-train” even though she left the team as a free agent last summer. Asked about the significance of playing her former team in the Bell Center, the Ontario native explained:
It’s a pretty special building, but I try to approach it like any other game in any other building. Yeah, I’m really happy with the win, it’s a big three points on the road, it’s tough, wins are tough in this league, so I’m really happy with that.- Chuli on the significan of playing her former team
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Asked about whether she was nervous, she said:
I mean, it's not any different than another game, to be honest. I have butterflies before every game, and they’re good. You use them to your advantage. But, no, honestly, I did treat it like another game.-
With the Victoire seeing most of the puck early in the first frame, her timely saves allowed the visitors to remain on level ground, and eventually, to turn the tide. At one stage, the locals had a 6-3 edge in shots, but by the end of the first period, Toronto had a 12-7 lead in that department and a 1-0 lead on the scoreboard.
Abby Roque was able to get the better of Chuli in the second frame. However, the netminder still stopped 13 of the 14 shots the Victoire put on net in that period, making many tricky saves and doing a good job of controlling rebounds as Montreal players tried to crash the net as much as possible.
She was a bit lucky when a Laura Stacey one-timer hit the post before hitting her in the back and nearly trickled in, but she was saved by Kali Flanagan, who cleared the puck away from danger.
After 40 minutes, the Sceptres had a 2-1 lead despite being outshot 21-19, thanks to a Darryl Watts goal on a two-on-one that Desbiens probably would have liked to get back, and Chuli was just 20 minutes away from beating her former team.
Montreal tested Chuli nine more times in the final frame, but the netminder stood her ground, and no one else could beat her. Although she gave the puck away once while handling it behind the net, there was no harm as she got back in position swiftly. Even with the Victoire on the power play, the Toronto netminder tracked the puck incredibly well. When Stacey got another one-timer opportunity, she flashed the glove to neutralize the threat and held on for a faceoff.
In the end, Chuli stopped 29 of the 30 shots she faced, giving her a .967 save percentage, which is enough to get a win, even if your team only manages to score a couple of goals.
Speaking after the game, Toronto's coach had this to say about Chuli’s performance:
I thought it was outstanding, she made big saves in a timely fashion, but her compete level, just battling on pucks, never giving up on pucks and finding ways at times to get something in front of it. Sometimes that can be frustrating, like typical head coaches have a thing with goalies sometimes, but I love the fact that she just battles, competes, and finds ways to stop pucks.- Ryan on Chuli's performance
When the Victoire coach was asked if her former netminder perhaps had a bit of a playbook on her players, she replied:
I mean, yeah, I think you know she played a great game. I think we missed four open nets as well, and we had 85 shot attempts towards her. At the end of the day, we have to take responsibility and be able to solve a goalie. Does Chuli know where people are going to shoot? For sure, but there were tons of opportunities there for us and rebound-wise to stop at the net, find an east-west play, get a stick at the puck to get it over the line, and we didn’t do that.- Cheverie on Chuli having a playbook on her team
Understandably, Cheverie was in no mood to throw too many flowers Chuli’s way, since she felt her team had more than enough opportunities to avoid going home with a loss. Meanwhile, captain Marie-Philip Poulin had nothing but praise for her former teammate:
Yeah, I think we know Elaine is a very good goalie. We had her in Montreal for the last two years. She’s an excellent goaltender, and she showed it today. She’s a clutch goalie in this league, and to be honest, I’m really proud of her. She was our teammate for two years and then to see how she evolved, she took the opportunity to go to Toronto and become one of the two goalies there, great for her.- Poulin on Chuli's game
Whichever way you look at it, Chuli stood tall and grabbed the three points that were there for the taking, spoiling the Victoire’s homecoming to the Bell Centre.
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