Your PWHL BOS team hit the ice North of the border this afternoon for a tilt vs. their Montreal counterparts at historic Verdun Auditorium. It took a little bit of overtime, and the benefit of an unbiased review (looking at you NHL), but at the end of it, your heroes from Boston secured their first W as a franchise and hung a 3-2 L on Montreal.
If you’re north of 30 years old and have watched any hockey between teams from Boston and Montreal in your lifetime you know how it goes and you know how it works. It doesn’t matter if it’s NHL, AHL, juniors, beer league or Pee-Wees. You don’t like them as much as they don’t like you. The color of the sweater doesn’t matter, you just feel it in your bones. Well, you can now add the PWHL Boston club to that list of teams that don’t like Montreal.
I mean I have nothing against these players. I even genuinely like some of them. I have nothing against the city of Montreal, and I truly love Canada. I just hate hockey players from MTL. Yup, I said it. I’m working against a generational dislike that’s been handed down like a family heirloom for years. I sat in stunned silence as the first PP of the game went to Boston. I grew up with the saying of “The only guarantees in life are death, taxes and the first power play in the Forum going to the Canadiens.”
A sold out crowd welcomed Montreal to their home opener, as they were the last team to play in front of their own fans, and the folks in the building were engaged from the opening draw. The play was tentative to open the first, as has been the case in many of the games of the new league. As the period progressed, the players seemed to warm to the task and the body contact picked up, especially along the wall. MTL had the edge in shots but BOS netminder Aerin Frankel was up to the task as she looked comfortable and had great rebound control.
The teams came out for the 2nd and as soon as the puck was dropped, MTL was on the board. Erin Ambrose scored the first home goal in PWHL MTL history when her wrister from the right point found its way home through a forest of legs and sticks. Old friend of the podcast, Maureen Murphy circled back up from the LW corner behind Frankel and laid the puck to Ann-Sophie Bettez in the high slot. Bettez gathered the puck in and dished back to Ambrose at the point.
Just 1:02 later MTL doubled up their score and that impending feeling of doom that every Bruins’ fan (of a certain vintage) knows all too well started to settle in. Tereza Vanisova fought through a thicket of BOS defenders in the RW corner and came out with the puck on her stick and her head up the whole way. Laura Stacey was dropping into the high slot all alone and she labeled that one over Frankel’s glove. I mean she got ALL of that one.
But Boston wasn’t going to lay down for this one. With just over 4 mins gone in the period and with BOS on the PK, Taylor Girard scored the first “jail-break goal” in PWHL BOS history. Girard broke in with speed to spare and beat Ann-Renee Desbiens clean over the blocker to put BOS on the board. What a breakout pass from Gigi Marvin to spring Girard, laid it out perfect for her to skate into.
Then just a minute and a half later, Hannah Brandt might have finished off the prettiest sequence in the history of the PWHL. BOS had the cycle going behind the MTL net and Brandt got knocked down as she moved the puck to Jamie Lee Rattray at the top of the RW circle. Rattray slid the puck to Theresa Schafzahl in the slot who re-directed it back to Brandt between her legs as Brandt came up from behind the net to stash it on the backhand past Desbiens. And just like that it’s a tie ballgame. Unfortunately I can’t find any of the BOS highlights online, but I did find a French recap on YouTube that shows all the BOS goals. You can view everything down below. Enjoy!
The score held through the rest of the 2nd and all through the 3rd as the teams ramped up the physicality. If it wasn’t for the goalies this could have easily been a 7-6 type game, but they buckled down and were trading saves like they were heavyweight prizefighters trading haymakers.
The teams headed to OT and in the first few minutes, MTL appeared to have won their home opener as Captain Clutch herself, Marie-Philip Poulin buried a Laura Stacey rebound over Frankel for (what looked like) the game-winner. MTL mobbed their captain as Frankel calmly but emphatically waved her arms to indicate no goal (again you can watch on the recap above).
A review was had and how do you know how you’re not in the old Forum? How do you know that the new league is not worshipping at the altar of the Bleu Blanc et Rouge? How? A goal review went for BOS in Montreal, that’s how. The officials decided that THERE WAS goaltender interference and Stacey’s stick pushed Frankel back into the net and the BOS netminder could not play the puck. Line them back up and let’s get it going.
Once the game was back underway, Rattray worked the puck down the wall in the MTL zone while Marvin battled for position in the corner. Amanda Pelkey circled the net from the RW corner to the LW and touched a backhand feed to Marvin as she kept skating behind the net. Marvin won her battle and fed the puck back across to Pelkey who kind of got lost in coverage and came out on the other side of the net by herself. The puck laid across to Pelkey and she made no mistake burying the puck past a diving Desbiens. Game over (again you can see this goal in the video package above).
That gives your Boston PWHL club their first win in the new league and begins what I can only hope is a long and nasty rivalry.
For those that aren’t aware, I also cover the Northeastern women’s hockey team and have been truly lucky to get to talk with some of the players that took part in tonight’s game. You can find them at the links below and all of our podcasts wherever you get your pods. Watch your feet, I’m about to be dropping some names.
PWHL BOS Goalie Aerin Frankel you can find here
PWHL BOS Forward Alina Müeller you can find here
PWHL MTL Forward Maureen Murphy you can find here
You can read more about Brownie down below or follow him on:
Twitter: @abrow28
IG/Threads: @a_brow28
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