The Montreal team concluded its first regular season in the Professional Women’s Hockey League with a 4-3 defeat against the Boston team on Saturday afternoon at the Tsongas Center.
After being treated to a good scare in the third period, the Boston team (8-4-9-3 – 35 points) qualified for the playoffs thanks to this victory in regulation time, combined with the defeat of 5 -2 from Minnesota earlier in the day in New York.
Boston owes this qualification to Kaleigh Fratkin’s decisive net, on a wrist shot from the blue line which deflected off Amanda Boulier’s stick before surprising Ann-Renée Desbiens under her mitt, with 80 seconds left in regulation time .
For its part, the Montreal team (10-3-6-5 – 41 points) had nothing to gain from this match since it was already confined to second place.
However, head coach Kori Cheverie, defender Erin Ambrose and captain Marie-Philip Poulin in turn reminded on Friday that it was important to refine the facets of the team game which were not up to par in anticipation. playoffs.
They achieved part of that goal in the third period, when they erased a 0-3 deficit by scoring three consecutive goals.
Mikyla Grant-Mentis and Mariah Keopple, both on the power play in the third period, first fooled Aerin Frankel, who faced 31 shots.
Poulin, with his 10th of the season, then tied the game at 16:51.
Boulier and Mélodie Daoust each collected two assists in the defeat.
Hilary Knight (1-1), Hannah Brandt (0-2) and Susanna Tapani (0-2) led the Boston attack with two points each.
Alina Müller, in the first period, and Megan Keller, in the second period, also beat Desbiens, who made 31 saves.
The Montreal team will now enter playoff mode and will host the first two games of the three-of-five semi-final series, on May 9 and 11 at Place Bell.
It remains to be seen against whom.
A sequence ends
For this last match of the regular season, Cheverie used the same formation as against Ottawa exactly a week earlier.
That includes Desbiens, who delivered a spectacular performance against Ottawa in the 2-0 victory, and who blanked his rivals for 64 minutes 29 seconds, including the previous game against New York.
The sequence ended at 15:19 of the first period when Knight pounced on a loose puck in the Desbiens semi-circle and pushed it into the back of the net.
This goal began a supremacy for the Boston players, who obtained five of the next six shots before the end of the period.
They doubled their lead with 78 seconds remaining in the first period thanks to Müller, who had been forgotten in the slot after a throw-in to the right of Desbiens.
The Montrealers had some good moments in the first half of the first period, particularly during a power play.
However, despite spending almost two full minutes in the Boston zone, Montreal only got one shot on Frankel.