A regulation loss would have all but guaranteed the New York Sirens would be on the outside looking in at the PWHL playoff picture. Instead, New York picked up their second straight regulation win, a 1-0 shutout of first place Montreal, to keep their slim hopes alive.
Jade Downie-Landry scored the only goal of the game with 12 seconds remaining in the first period, ripping a shot from the high slow over Montreal netminder Elaine Chuli. In New York’s crease, Corinne Schroeder picked up her league-leading third shutout of the season stopping all 16 shots she faced.
“It was a good effort by our group. Montréal came out of the gates pretty hot, but we were able to kind of weather those first five or six minutes,” said New York head coach Greg Fargo. “Things didn’t go our way in the first period, a five-minute power play didn’t go our way. I thought we responded to everything really well and stuck with our game. We got better as we went along, and I really liked how our D-core played tonight. It was really tough. I thought we did a nice job of trying to stop [Poulin’s] line over there and that a collective effort.”
Chuli Spectacular In The Loss
While it wasn’t the outcome Montreal was looking for, they took positives from the loss, including in the play of Elaine Chuli who made 30 saves in the loss.
“There’s lots of positives from today. Chuli was amazing. Our penalty kill was great. Our power play had good looks. I thought we gave away the second period. So, we basically wasted 20 minutes of the game. And we talked about it a lot,” said Montreal coach Kori Cheverie. When you play for Montréal, you’re expected to know to play within the structure. And we gave up on our structure in the second period. And once we got back to that, I felt like the tides were kind of pushing in our favour a little bit more. It’s all a part of it. It’s a part of learning how to push through in moments where the puck is just not rolling across that line for you.”
“Obviously, Chuli kept us in it, and she’s been doing an unbelievable job since Ann [Desbiens] went down–– even before that,” said Montreal defender Erin Ambrose. “But the big saves after big saves that Chuli’s making, that’s what a goalie needs to do, and she’s been doing that for us. And she gave us a chance to be in that game.”
Heading Into The International Break
Both the Montreal Victoire and New York Sirens are now into their international break which does not return until April 26. New York will see defenders Ella Shelton and Micah Zandee-Hart play for Canada, along with forward Sarah Fillier. Up front from the Sirens, Alex Carpenter will play for Team USA, while Noora Tulus will represent Finland. From the Victoire, Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, Ann-Renee Desbiens, Erin Ambrose, Jennifer Gardiner, and Kristin O’Neill will all play for Team Canada. Montreal will also send Sandra Abstreiter (Germany), Cayla Barnes and Anna Wilgren (USA), Lina Ljungblom (Sweden), and Dominka Laskova (Czechia) to the World Championships.
The break shifts the mentality for many players, while the rest will remain in North American and train.
“I feel like I have a lot of experience playing at school and then having to leave for three weeks for Worlds, so, nothing new there and just trying to stay present,” said Sirens forward Sarah Fillier. “This game tonight was huge for us because we needed this win to be in a good spot going into the break for playoffs. So, nothing really changes, but it’s exciting to head off to Czechia here tomorrow.”
