Laura Stacey's hat trick gave the Montreal Victoire a chance, but the defending champion Minnesota Frost came away with the overtime win in the first game of their playoff series.
Minnesota defeated Montreal 5-4 in overtime in the first game of their semi-final series, a testy, penalty-filled contest. Jincy Roese launched a point shot at 4:30 of the fourth period to give the Frost the victory, overcoming the hat trick heroics of Montreal's Laura Stacey.
Almost all the storylines from the regular season series between the two teams were flipped, except for the inevitability of overtime.
Montreal had not lost at Place Bell in regulation all year, and only once (in overtime) all season and had won six straight games against Minnesota but the Victoire appeared uncomfortable to start the game.
Playoff Minnesota looks different and a player like Katy Knoll showed why as she opened the scoring for the Frost at 8:36 of the first with a gutsy effort to outskate Jessica DiGirolamo and get her stick on a pass from Klára Hymlárová, putting it high over Ann-Renée Desbiens' stick side.
Penalties and special teams set the tone early in the first period as four total calls were made.
Kendall Coyne Schofield made Montreal pay at 16:16 of the first by squeezing a puck through the pads of Desbiens to give the Frost a 2-0 lead and the home crowd was stunned into silence.
Neither team had scored a power play goal against the other, and Montreal had not allowed a power play goal at home since January.
In the second, the Frost almost made it 3-0 when Taylor Heise was stopped on a breakaway by Desbiens.
The Victoire pushed back and were rewarded when Shiann Darkangelo put a Kati Tabin rebound underneath Maddie Rooney to make it a one-goal game. It was only the sixth shot on goal for Montreal.
Scrums after whistles, goalies losing their helmets, and near-fights started to show how much these two teams dislike each other.
Montreal's Laura Stacey pushed through adversity and finally drew the Victoire even at 17:49 when she wrapped a puck around and through Rooney, bringing the crowd to life.
Just 46 seconds later, however, Grace Zumwinkle responded with a go-ahead goal that showed no one was going to back down. It was only the second time all season that Desbiens had allowed more than two goals in a game.
Shortly afterward, Britta Curl was given a five-minute major and a game misconduct for a hit to the head of Kaitlin Willoughby. Curl has a history of suspensions and dangerous hits, so there may be further discipline from the league.
Marie-Philip Poulin did not look to be at 100% speed, but she contributed in the faceoff circle and power play and had two assists.
During the power play on Curl's major that rolled over from the second period , Stacey struck again with a shot from the top of the circle that beat Rooney and tied the game at 3-3.
The Frost, however, continued to show championship poise and answered with a shorthanded tally by Sidney Morin just 48 seconds later. It was another uncharacteristic goal against Desbiens, who saw the low shot but somehow allowed it past her pad.
Another penalty was called just 33 seconds after the goal, to Morin herself, and Montreal went to work on the power play and evened it at 4-4 with a rebound strike from Stacey to complete the hat trick and send the crowd into a frenzy again.
"Stace was able to put us on her back at times and figure out a way to put the puck across the line and you just appreciate a player like that. You appreciate someone who works so hard and plays the right way," said Montreal's coach Kori Cheverie.
"She's a great leader for us and certainly it would have been nice to get the win with that kind of performance from Stace."
In all, thirteen penalties were called.
In overtime, the Victoire had a couple of chances with Natalie Mlynková and Marie-Philip Poulin almost connecting, but the reigning champs held their composure. Roese's shot from the blue line appeared to hit something before it connected with Desbiens' shoulder and went up and just over the goal line.
"Every game's different," said Minnesota head coach Ken Klee.
"It's one of those games where you could think it's going to be a 2-1 game that probably a lot of people would have thought and then all of a sudden we have a 5-4 game. So I just think every game kind of takes on its own personality. Maybe one team gets up early, the other team has to press a little bit. But like I said, we just have to be ready. We know it's just one game, so we've just got to ready."
Game Two of the series will be Tuesday at 7:00 pm in Montreal.