The Montreal Victoire can run hot and cold in the scoring department, and often, goal scoring has been their downfall as Pat Laprade writes.
At a press conference last Thursday, as her 23-player squad had just been confirmed, Montreal Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie was asked about the number of goals her team scores, or more specifically, its difficulty to score goals.
Cheverie's response was quick: Montreal finished second in goals for last year, first in goals against, and what she mainly looks at is the goal differential.
And in her defence, she was completely right.Montreal actually finished the regular season with a goal differential of plus 10, the best in the PWHL. The average goals scored per team per game last season was 2.51. Montreal’s average was 2.57.
However, the feeling the team isn’t scoring that many goals is still there, and the 2-0 loss in the season opener against the Boston Fleet on Sunday afternoon doesn’t help.
So I dug a little deeper to understand why this feeling exists among the media covering the team, a feeling that I also share, I should add.
The Passing Grade and Even Better for Montreal
I started my research with the number of goals scored by Montreal in each game of last season. Montreal scored two goals or fewer in 15 games, just like Boston and Toronto. No team did fewer than that. Ottawa had the worst record with 18 games of two goals or fewer. As far as one-goal games, Montreal had four, the same as Minnesota. That’s the lowest total of one-goal games in the league. In comparison, New York had eight and Boston seven.
The Victoire was shut out twice last season, right in the league average. Two teams were shut out once, two others twice, and finally two others, three times.Finally, in terms of games with four goals or more, Montreal is second with eight, behind Minnesota and its 11 games. However, Minnesota scored more than four goals six times compared to only once for the Victoire. But then again, Toronto didn't score more than four goals even once in 2024-25.
Power Play and Playoffs, More of a Problem
And even in terms of scoring sequences, Montreal only once had a three-game streak with two goals scored or less. Otherwise, it never went beyond two consecutive games.On the other hand, there’s the power play. Montreal finished second-to-last, last season, with a success rate of 15.5%, far behind Toronto and its 25.8%.There are also goals per period. The team often ran out of steam in the third period, scoring only 18 goals, compared to 20 in the first period and 32 in the second.And then there are the playoffs. Last year, Montreal scored six goals in four games against Ottawa. The year before, the team scored four goals in three games against Boston.
A baseless feeling So my conclusion is this: when you analyze last season and you compare Montreal to the other teams, this feeling is simply unfounded. However, it seems that the poor offensive playoff performances, the ineffectiveness on the power play, and the lack of goals in the third period overshadow the reality of the team when compared to others. Let's see if this year’s opening game signals a tougher season for Montreal’s offence or if everything will return to normal, which is better than we think in Montreal.
In My iPhone Notes
- If it hadn’t been for Ann-Renée Desbiens, especially in the first period, that game could have easily ended 4 or 5-0 for Boston. She has nothing to blame herself for on the two goals allowed.
- It’s the first time the Victoire has lost its opening game and its first away game. And last season, it wasn’t until February 18 that Montreal was shut out for the first time.
- It was the third time since the inaugural season that Montreal gave its opponent six power-plays. In its very first game, on January 2, 2024, Ottawa scored a goal on six chances, while on January 5, 2025, Boston scored two goals on six opportunities.
- This was Marie-Philip Poulin's first six-minute penalty game in the PWHL.