Laura Stacey lifted the 17,324 fans at Bell Center in Montreal out of their seats Saturday. Stacey scored the overtime winner for the Montreal Victoire. In OT, Stacey dove across the net front to tap in the 3-2 winner over the Boston Fleet in the second Duel at the Top.
Kati Tabin opened the scoring for Montreal only 36 seconds into the game. Tabin later scored her second of the game to tie things in the third.
“Game in, game out, Kati has chances. She also creates chances,” said Stacey of her teammate Kati Tabin. “She plays sound offensively. It’s just a matter of time until those pucks go in the back of the net like they did tonight. I’m so happy for her, it’s so well deserved. Good things happen to good people, and that’s exactly what happened today.”
Boston got goals from Amanda Pelkey and Sidney Morin in the game. Aerin Frankel made 27 saves in the loss.
For Montreal it was another step toward a regular season title as they extended their league leading point total. Montreal is now seven points ahead of Toronto with games in hand.
“I thought that our energy dipped as a team in the second period, and we just needed to find that level of compete that Boston was bringing,” said Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie of her team’s performance. “They had a game plan that I think they executed quite well, and we just needed to match that. The players took it upon themselves to challenge themselves to come out in the third and make a decision that we were going to take over the game.”
Last year the Duel at the Top broke the world record for attendance at a women’s hockey game when they drew a crowd of 21,105.
Montreal stays at home hosting Minnesota on Tuesday. Boston will host New York Wednesday.
