(Saint Paul) Elaine Chuli shone with a performance of 41 saves and the Montreal team of the Professional Women’s Hockey League signed a 2-1 victory on Wednesday, inflicting a first defeat in regulation time on Minnesota.
With this victory, the Montrealers took first place on the circuit, one point ahead of their rivals from Minnesota. The latter, however, have a game in hand.
“I am very happy with our goalkeepers,” said head coach Kori Cheverie, before providing an update.
“I’ll have to look at the stats, but a lot of their shots came from the outside. I’m not worried at all by the number of shots. Ultimately, defense is as important as offense. »
Laura Stacey and Tereza Vanisova scored the goals for Montreal, which suffered its only defeat in regulation time at the hands of Minnesota. It was 3-0 on January 6 at the Xcel Energy Center.
“Every night it feels like it’s Game 7,” Cheverie said. It’s difficult to get three points in this league. I am very happy with the group’s response after the defeat [de 4-3 en fusillade] against Toronto. I’m happy with the way we muzzled them. »
Michela Cava scored the only goal for the local favorites. Nicole Hensley stopped 22 pucks.
A good start
Stacey opened the scoring 4:12 into the first period. Her one-timer deflected off a Minnesota player. The changing trajectory fooled Hensley, who was facing his first pitch of the game.
After a hard-fought first period, Minnesota took the lead in the second period, dominating 17-6 in shots on goal.
“We have a lot of penalties, so that’s one of the reasons why we give away a lot of shots. But we have two very good goalkeepers,” Vanisova analyzed.
Cava took the opportunity to tie the game at 11:51. She collected a loose puck to the left of Chuli after an initial shot from Liz Schepers. It was his first goal and second point in the LPHF.
The Montrealers had a chance on the power play next, but they were unable to find the back of the net. They have only scored one goal in 22 opportunities with at least one player added since the start of the campaign.
The visitors were, however, effective when shorthanded, being perfect on five occasions.
Punished in the third period, Vanisova also thanked her teammates playing inferiority with the winning goal as soon as she returned to the ice.
“We had a lot of penalties today and I’m very grateful that we used them all. It was good work from the players in the penalty situation,” commented Vanisova.
After a clearance by Catherine Daoust and a missed release by Hensley to take control of the puck, Maureen Murphy shot towards the net from a very tight angle. The return ended up in the slot, and Vanisova took advantage of a gaping cage to restore the lead to the Montreal team.
“Obviously, it was an important goal,” admitted Vanisova. [Murphy] did a good job on the forecheck, it bounced towards me and I had an empty net. It was a very, very important victory for us, that’s for sure. »
It was a first goal in the LPHF for the 27-year-old Czech player, with only 6:06 remaining.
The Cheverie squad will return to action on Saturday when they host the Ottawa team at Place Bell in Laval. The Ottawans lost 3-2 against Boston on Wednesday.