Two of the PWHL's hottest teams following the Olympic break, the Montreal Victoire and Toronto Sceptres went head-to-head in Toronto with the Victoire coming out victorious in a shootout.
The Montreal Victoire stayed undefeated following the Olympics beating another red hot opponent in the Toronto Sceptres 4-3 in a shootout in front of 8,671 fans at Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto.
After falling behind 2-0 on Toronto goals by Maggie Connors and Blayre Turnbull, the Montreal Victoire got the wake up call they needed from captain Marie-Philip Poulin who solved Raygan Kirk at 8:04 of the second. Kirk has been a key factor in Toronto's hot start to the post-Olympic portion of the PWHL season and she was again against Montreal turning aside 31 shots in the loss.
After Poulin got the Victoire on the board, Hayley Scamurra tied things up before the second period was out, and Lina Ljungblom scored her second goal in the last three games to give the Victoire the lead, albeit termporarily.
With their goaltender pulled, Jesse Compher was able to tie the game for the Sceptres with only 1:04 remaining in the game.
After overtime solved nothing, the teams went to a shootout. It was an uncharacteristic shootout with the shooters being favored scoring seven times total on 12 combined attempts between the teams, including two from Poulin to lift Montreal to the win.
Sandra Abstreiter earned the win in only her third appearance this season for Montreal stopping 23 shots.
The win gave Montreal a three point cushion in first overall over Boston, albeit with the Fleet holding three games in hand. Toronto's single point pulled them them into a tie at 24 points with the New York Sirens, but New York holds the tiebreakers keeping Toronto in fifth.