Ann-Sophie Bettez spoiled Ottawa’s record setting home opener scoring the overtime winner to give Montreal their first win.
Ann-Sophie Bettez spoiled Ottawa’s record setting home opener scoring the overtime winner to give Montreal their first win.
OTTAWA, ON — January 2nd, 2024 will be marked down as a historic day in Ottawa sports. While the outcome wasn’t as planned, a 3-2 overtime loss to Montreal with Ann-Sophie Bettez scoring the winner, the game itself made its mark.
As a record setting 8,318 fans, the most ever for a women’s professional hockey game, marched into TD Place for Ottawa’s home opener against Montreal, there was a feeling in the air that hadn’t been felt since the Ottawa Redblacks returned to the CFL in 2014.
Bracelets that flashed red and white were handed to each fan, and the arena was buzzing awaiting the members of Ottawa’s newest professional team.
Each player on Ottawa received thunderous applause, lining up on the blue line one by one. Enter Montreal, a city that has a long reputation on being Ottawa’s on-ice rival. A crescendo of boos were thrown down at the players as the away squad took to the ice, but the booing did not last long as it was taken over by the crowd uniting in celebration. The celebration was topped off with a ceremonial puck drop, with Ottawa captain Brianne Jenner and Montreal captain Marie-Philip Poulin.
The long-time international teammates shared a hug at center ice. Post game, Jenner reflected on that moment with Poulin:
“That was pretty special, obviously we’ve been through a lot together,” she said. “We’ve played against each other and with each other for a long time. We were just excited for each other.”
When the puck dropped, Ottawa came out flying carrying most of the possession and drawing three penalties in the ten minutes of the first period. Starting netminder, Emerence Maschmeyer, stopped all four shots against for Ottawa, but the home team couldn’t find a way to beat Montreal’s Ann-Renee Desbiens. Both teams went into the 1st intermission scoreless.
In the second, a turnover at the blue line saw Montreal’s Marie-Philip Poulin head the other way on a breakaway before she was tripped on the play, resulting in a penalty shot. On the penalty shot, Poulin faked forehand and went to the backhand, but Maschmeyer slid from side to side to prevent the superstar from opening the scoring.
Minutes later, a broken play in the neutral zone saw forward Mikyla Grant-Mentis sneak in behind the Montreal defence. She took a pass in transition along the boards and went one on one with Desbiens. Similar to Poulin, Grant-Mentis went forehand to backhand and slid it into the net. While Grant-Mentis and teammates celebrated, however, the officials skated to the box to review the play. After the review, it was deemed Grant-Mentis slid the puck through the side of net while Desbiens knocked up the net with her pad resulting in a “no goal” call.
What seemed like a rewarding moment for Ottawa had to be done all over again, but it didn’t take long for them to score their first goal. Hayley Scamurra took a pass on her forehand from Ashton Bell scoring a slap shot goal to put Ottawa up 1-0. For Scamurra, it was a special moment.
“It’s up there for me,” she reflected. “To be able to score the first goal for this franchise is an absolute honour.”
Just over a minute later, a broken play in Ottawa’s corner ended up on the stick of Claire Dalton in the slot who buried to tie things up for Montreal.
Just over five minutes into a tied third period, Ashton Bell corralled the puck at the blue line and fired a shot towards the net. The puck deflected onto the stick of forward of Katerina Mrazova who scored to put Ottawa up 2-1.
Montreal, however, was not done. Laura Stacey would barge down the wing with some room to shoot. She instead elected to pass, but the puck deflected off Ottawa’s Becca Gilmore ending up in Ottawa’s net to tie the game at 2-2, which after back and forth action to close out the period, would send the opener to overtime.
Though Ottawa carried of the most possession in regulation, Montreal had other plans when overtime came around. A gaff off of the stick of Ottawa defender Savannah Harmon forced by Kristin O’Neill resulted in a memorable moment for Montreal. O’Neill handed it off to Kati Tabin whose blocked shot landed on the stick of Ann-Sophie Bettez. Bettez fired a wrist shot past the blocker of Maschmeyer, giving Montreal the 3-2 win in overtime.
While Montreal celebrated their first ever PWHL win, the celebration of the PWHL did not end. Ottawa stayed on the ice, and the two teams shook hands and exchanged hugs. Both teams stayed on to take a team photo together, showing the PWHL’s unity.
While Ottawa was not happy with the loss, they see this game as a win in the big picture as head coach Carla MacLeod said.
“We have this moment. We fought so long to have fans get excited to watch women play hockey,” said MacLeod.
Next up Ottawa will travel to Boston to play their second match on January 8, while Montreal heads to Minnesota for their opener on January 6.