Marie-Philip Poulin scored a pair of goals over the New York Sirens, leading the Montreal Victoire to their fifth consecutive win of the PWHL season.
Marie-Philip Poulin scored a pair of goals over the New York Sirens, leading the Montreal Victoire to their fifth consecutive win of the PWHL season.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Ann-Renée Desbiens each came through with some notable accomplishments in leading the Montreal Victoire to a hard-fought 2-1 victory over the New York Sirens on Sunday afternoon at The Prudential Center.
The win was the visitors' fifth straight as they extended their advantage over second-place Minnesota to a six-point margin (31 to 25). New York remained in third place with 20 points.
“For us as a team, it's our third game in a short amount of time, and to come out here, get three points, to go home, to go on a break, it was pretty significant," said Montreal netminder Ann-Renee Desbiens. "We're really happy with the effort and how we're able to battle through everything and just keep going.”
With her two second-period goals, the Victoire's captain not only added to her league lead with 10 through 14 games, but she also tied Toronto's Natalie Spooner with the most goals (20) since the league began in January of 2024. Spooner remains out with an injury, but the feat is nonetheless impressive for Poulin.
Then, in shutting the door on the hosts' all-out attack on net in the closing minutes, Desbiens became the first goaltender this season to win eight games. She has recorded regulation wins for her team in her last five starts between the posts.
The Sirens, as they did in securing a point in a shootout loss in Boston on Friday night, made a strong push again but this time the point proved elusive. There was an individual achievement for the Sirens as Allyson Simpson notched her first career PWHL goal to put New York within striking distance.
Poulin was in the spotlight for good and not-so-good reasons in that middle frame.
After striking twice in a four-minute span against New York netminder Kayle Osborne, Poulin put her team on the defensive with a five-minute charging penalty.
However, the Victoire were more than up to that challenge as they limited the Sirens to only one shot on net by sealing the middle of the Sirens' offensive zone and forcing them to the outside with a gritty defensive effort.
“Tonight, we hit some shin pads and missed the net a lot but overall, we’re feeling a lot better about ourselves, but on the collective, I think there’s a lot about our game we like," said New York Sirens head coach Greg Fargo. "Going into the break, we’ll look at things more closely but overall is good.”
Abby Boreen had the primary assists on both Montreal scores, while New York's Sarah Fillier took sole possession of first place in the league in total points with 15 (5 goals/10 assists) by virtue of her helper on Simpson's goal.
Cayla Barnes and Jennifer Gardiner had the secondary helpers on Poulin's goals, while Ella Shelton also had an assist on New York's only tally.
The Sirens received some unfortunate news before the game when it was revealed that top-line forward Alex Carpenter would not play due to an upper-body injury.