Marie-Philip Poulin scored her first three goals in the Professional Women’s Hockey League to help the Montreal team defeat New York 5-2 on Wednesday.
Poulin threaded the needle in the first period and added the two insurance goals in the third.
Kennedy Marchment scored the winning goal and Catherine Dubois also hit the target for Montreal, which signed its first victory in regulation time in three games since the start of the campaign.
After giving the net to Ann-Renée Desbiens for the first two games of the season, head coach Kori Cheverie sent Elaine Chuli into the fray. In her first game in the Professional Women’s Hockey League (LPHF), the 29-year-old Ontario native made 28 saves.
Jessie Eldridge and Ella Shelton threaded the needle for New York, which suffered its second straight loss. Corinne Schroeder started a second game in front of the New York cage and she stopped 32 pucks.
New York won a preparatory duel between the two clubs 4-0 on December 4 in Utica.
The counters open
The home favorites got the first scoring chances in this game and opened the scoring at 6:09. Eldridge managed to outrun the Montreal players on the right side and beat Chuli with a shot into the upper left corner of the net.
Poulin, however, responded quickly, at 8:14. She accepted a pass from Erin Ambrose in the slot to score her first goal on the new circuit.
The Montrealers took advantage of a five-on-three sequence before the end of the first period, but they were not able to deceive Schroeder’s vigilance.
Kristin O’Neill was injured midway through the first period. She collided with teammate Maureen Murphy and needed help to get off the ice, but quickly returned to the game before the end of the period.
The Montreal team was already without Ann-Sophie Bettez and Laura Stacey as a preventive measure.
Dubois was therefore playing her first game with the team and took advantage of a loose puck in the semi-circle to give her team the lead on the power play, at 10:12 of the second. It was the first power play goal in team history.
The New Yorkers were also looking for a first goal on the power play. Shelton ended the wait just 26 seconds into the third period.
Marchment, with his first, then Poulin, with his second of the match, then allowed the Montreal team to take the lead until the end with two goals in 66 seconds. Poulin completed his hat trick in an empty cage.
The Montreal team will play its first match at the Verdun Auditorium on Saturday against Boston. She will then return to New York on Tuesday at Place Bell in Laval.
The New Yorkers will begin a four-game trip with a first stop at the Xcel Energy Center to cross swords with Minnesota.