Marie-Philip Poulin called game, breaking a 0-0 tie and ending a triple overtime thriller in favor of the Montréal Victoire who shutout the Minnesota Frost 1-0 to send their Walter Cup semifinal series to Minnesota all evened up.
Marie-Philip Poulin ended the fourth longest game in PWHL history, scoring the winner during the third overtime period of the Montréal Victoire's 1-0 win over the Minnesota Frost. The win evened the best-of-five series for Montréal to send the series tied 1-1 to Minnesota.
Ann-Renee Desbiens stoped 38 shots in the shutout victory, while Maddie Rooney was spectacular, making 51 shots in the loss.
After a high scoring 5-4 overtime decision in game one, the teams locked into a scoreless back and forth, with Montreal visibly controlling the game for the bulk of the 104:02 played. It ended when Laura Stacey fed Abby Roque, who found Marie-Philip Poulin for a cross-ice one-timer from one knee.
“We’re really happy. It was truly a team effort over the first three periods and the next three periods," said Poulin. "We had that intensity, that drive to win. It was shift after shift, and we stayed confident. We rolled up our sleeves and went to work—and I think we’re not finished.”
“Today's game was probably what we expected for the series," said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie. "And sometimes in game one that's going to happen as well, where you have two very offensive teams on both sides. I think both teams were trying to figure out: what is this series going to look like. How physical is it going to be? How much defense do we need to play? We realize both teams need to play a lot of defense in the first game, and I think both teams cleaned that up for game two. You know, we expected that they would come with a tighter game plan, and that's what we needed to do as well. It was a hard-fought game by both teams.”
It was Minnesota's seventh straight playoff game going to overtime. The Frost are back-to-back Walter Cup champions, while the first place Victoire have been eliminated in two straight opening rounds.
Game three gets underway Thursday, May 7 in Minnesota.