The Montreal Victoire were shutout 2-0 in their season debut by Aerin Frankel and the Boston Fleet.
The Montreal Victoire started its regular season with a trip to Massachusetts to take on the Boston Fleet. Kori Cheverie’s crew had beaten the locals twice in preseason and probably felt confident. Still, they hadn’t faced top goaltender trophy finalist Aerin Frankel in those two games, and it made a big difference.
The Victoire had an underwhelming start, looking disorganized and trying to find passing lanes, rhythm, and confidence in the first frame, while the host hit the ground running. Susanna Tapani scored the first goal of the game after just 1:31 of play when her shot was stopped by Ann-Renee Desbiens, but rebounded off a blueliner and then in. The score remained the same at the end of the stanza, with Boston having a 13-9 edge in shots.
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The Victoire first got a bench minor for having too many players on the ice early in the second, but Montreal stormed back into the game after that, attacking relentlessly, and they might have been able to come back had they not spent so much time in the sin bin. Granted, it gets frustrating when the goaltender has an answer to everything, but you cannot afford to give in to frustration.
With just over three minutes left in the second period, Marie-Philip Poulin was actually assessed two minor penalties on the same shift, and that killed the momentum the team had spent the entire period creating. Even though they only allowed a single shot in the four-minute power play.
To make matters even worse, Victoire’s captain also took another penalty for illegal body checking, not even two minutes into the final frame. Laura Stacey and Jill Saulnier were also assessed penalties on the play as things got rough after the whistle. That’s when Megan Killer scored to make it 2-0.
Then, it was Amanda Boulier’s turn to get in penalty trouble, a 2:26 in the third frame. The visitors shut the door, minimizing the damage, but not even two and a half minutes later, Boulier was assessed another penalty, this one for interference. While refs typically have a tendency to try to balance their calls, it wasn’t the case on Saturday afternoon, and Bouilier’s interference was so blatant that the referee had no choice but to call it.
In the end, Montreal was assessed 14 penalty minutes, while Boston was assessed only two. Cheverie’s troop was lucky that the Fleet’s power play wasn’t more lethal; they only capitalized on one man's advantage. However, the time and energy spent and wasted to kill the penalties caught up to them in the end. Stacey and Abby Roque only got a single shot between the pair of them,
I’ve rarely seen Poulin take so many penalties, and she’s usually the player who makes you win, not lose. Needless to say, the players will have to do much better on the discipline front if they want to give their fans another ending in their home opener.
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