Marie-Philip Poulin led the charge with a three-point performance, and the Montreal team of the Professional Women’s Hockey League defeated the Boston club by a score of 3-1 Saturday afternoon at the Auditorium de Verdun.
This second consecutive victory for the Montreal team (6-3-3-2 – 27 points) allowed it to consolidate its lead at the top of the league standings, three points ahead of Toronto, which beat Ottawa 5-2 a a little earlier in the day.
The two clubs played 14 games.
Furthermore, Saturday’s match marked the debut with the Montreal team of forward Mélodie Daoust, who signed a 10-day contract Friday evening.
Daoust did not miss his comeback, scoring the Montreal team’s second goal early in the second period. Also, she was on the ice for her team’s first three goals.
Poulin, who served a perfect pass to Daoust on his goal, opened the scoring during the initial engagement.
The Montreal captain added an assist on the possible insurance goal from defender Erin Ambrose (3rd), early in the third period.
Poulin has seven goals and eight assists since the start of the season.
Boston’s answer came from Hilary Knight against Elaine Chuli, who faced 31 shots.
For Chuli, this is a fifth victory in as many outings. Above all, she found a way to reduce her goals allowed average, which stood at 1.24 before the start of the match.
At the other end of the ice, Aerin Frankel made 32 saves.
A busy week awaits the Kori Cheverie players, who will play three games in five days, the first two of which will be abroad.
The first of these matches will take place on Wednesday against the New York team followed, two days later, by a stopover in Toronto.
This grueling sequence will end on Sunday, March 10 with Ottawa’s visit to Place Bell in Laval.
Daoust makes his presence felt
After Friday’s training at the Verdun Auditorium, Daoust said she felt in very good physical shape, and she did not seem at all worried about being able to keep up the pace.
She was not mistaken, spending six minutes 57 seconds on the ice during the first period, more than any other forward on the Montreal team with the exception of Kristin O’Neill. And she also got two of Montreal’s shots towards Frankel during the first 20 minutes of play.
And if Daoust did not collect a point on the first goal of the match, scored by Poulin on a shot taken from point blank range and without warning, she contributed to it with her work, first deep in the rival zone then, for a few seconds later, near the Boston blue line.
This goal from Poulin, scored at 3:51, was the highlight of a first twenty marked by few dangerous shots from either side.
Poulin created another highlight that allowed his team to double its lead at 4:51 of the middle period
The Montreal captain not only won the faceoff in the left circle of the Boston zone, she kept possession of the disc which she then relayed to Daoust who had no difficulty finding the back of the net.
The Boston team had time to react with just over five minutes remaining in the middle period.
A blunder by defender Mariah Keopple at her blue line allowed Alina Müller to escape down the right flank alongside Knight.
Müller slipped the puck to her and Knight gave Chuli no chance, beating her with a quick wrist shot.
As in the first two engagements, Montreal struck again early in the third period when Ambrose beat Frankel with a shot from the blue line.
This time, the Boston players failed to get close to their rivals.