LPHF: Montreal takes revenge on Minnesota

Eileen Cholley made a 41-save performance and the Montreal Women's Professional Hockey League earned a 2-1 victory on Wednesday, handing Minnesota its first defeat in regulation time.

With this victory, the Montreal team took first place on the track, one point ahead of their competitors from Minnesota. But the latter has a game in hand.

“I'm very happy with our goalies,” coach Cory Chevery said before providing an update.

“I have to look at the stats, but a lot of their shots came from outside. I'm not worried at all about the number of shots. In the end, defense is as important as attack. »

Laura Stacy and Teresa Vanisova scored the goals for Montreal, which suffered its only defeat in regular time at the hands of Minnesota. It was 3-0 on Jan. 6 at Xcel Energy Center.

“Every night it feels like we're in Game 7,” Chevery said. It's hard to get three points in this league. I'm very happy with the group's reaction after the defeat [de 4-3 en fusillade] Against Toronto. I'm happy with the way we gagged them. »

Michela Cava scored the only goal for the local candidates. Nicole Hensley made 22 stops.

good start

Stacy opened the scoring 4:12 into the first period. Her timer went off once for a Minnesota player. The changing trajectory fooled Hensley, who was facing his first pitch of the game.

After a tough first period, Minnesota took the lead in the second period and dominated 17-6 in shots on goal.

“We have a lot of penalties, that's one of the reasons we miss a lot of shots. But we have two very good goalkeepers.

The Cavs took the opportunity to tie the game at 11:51 of the period. She collected a loose puck to Chuli's left after an initial shot from Liz Schepers. This was his first goal and second point in the LPHF.

The Montrealers had a chance on the power play after that, but were unable to find the back of the net. They have scored just one goal in 22 opportunities with at least one player added since the start of the season.

However, the visitors were effective when shorthanded, being perfect on five occasions.

Vanisova was also punished in the third period and thanked her teammates who played inferiorly with the winning goal as soon as she returned to the ice.

“We had a lot of penalty kicks today and I'm very grateful that we used them all. It was good work from the players in the penalty area,” commented Vanisova.

After a clearance by Catherine Daoust and Hensley's miscontrol of the ball, Maureen Murphy shot home from a very tight angle. The comeback ended in the slot, and Vanisova took advantage of the hole in the cage to regain the lead for Montreal.

“Obviously it was an important goal,” Vanisova admitted. [Murphy] He did a good job on the forecheck, bounced back at me and I had an empty net. It was a very important victory for us, that's for sure. »

It was the 27-year-old Czech's first Premier League goal, with just 6:06 remaining.

The Cheverie will return to action on Saturday when they welcome Ottawa to Place Bell in Laval. Ottawa lost 3-2 to Boston on Wednesday.