Montreal 4 – Toronto 3 | Victory tames its black beast

That's it. La Victoire managed to beat its sworn enemy, the Toronto Scepters, with a 4-3 victory in overtime.

Montreal seemed headed for a sixth defeat in six games against Toronto, with a two-goal deficit after the first period. The pitfalls multiplied in the face of his hopes of winning.

Just before the game, it was learned that starting goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens would be sidelined indefinitely due to illness. Even though it wasn't her fault, her substitute, Elaine Chuli, returned to the locker room with a two-goal deficit after the first period.

When Victory managed to level the score, Toronto's Izza Daniel responded with a goal, which should never have been awarded, due to a blatant offside. Then, in the third, defender Amanda Bouillier had to leave the match, after being the victim of a hard hit from Rylind MacKinnon, de facto expelled.

The carrots seemed cooked for the Victory, unable to score in five minutes of numerical advantage. Until rookie Lina Ljungblom chose the perfect moment to score her first goal, after a continuous effort in front of the net, to tie the game.

In overtime, it only took around fifteen seconds for Laura Stacey to decamp alone, on a beautiful pass from Marie-Philip Poulin, to offer the victory to her team, after a beautiful backhand feint.

Still, despite the victory, coach Kori Cheverie will have a lot of work to do. Especially when it comes to the power play. His troops were unable to capitalize in four attempts. They are languishing at the bottom of the LPHF rankings in this phase of play, with an efficiency of 11.1%.

The woe isn't attributable to a lack of resources: with Stacey's shooting, Ambrose's vision, and Poulin's dominance, things should click without a hitch.

Despite its four goals, the Montreal attack lacked sparkle all evening at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. She struggled to settle into the opposing zone, especially creating her opportunities in transition.

This dynamism to cross the ice rink, at least, will have paid off. Montreal's first goal, from Abby Boreen, will also find a privileged place in your countdown of games for the year 2024. We doubt that defender Renata Fast will be able to sleep tonight, after being served three cups of coffee on the sequence.

Montreal will therefore have to do better, to hope to win against the first team on the circuit, the Minnesota Frost, in a week, at the Xcel Energy Center. Despite their brilliance during the previous season, the Scepters represented less of a threat. They collapsed in their last 4 games, allowing 17 goals. Minnesota, on the other hand, has only granted ten, so far.

Nonetheless, things are going very well for Victory, which has only experienced defeat once since the launch of this campaign. It was against the New York Sirens, four of whom are in the top 6 in scoring.