Victory won 3-2 against the Minnesota Frost on Saturday afternoon in St. Paul. A big win of three points, acquired against the reigning champions, and at the end of a complete, although imperfect, performance from Montreal. Here is our analysis, in four themes.
Posted at 5:30 p.m.
Updated at 5:58 p.m.
Mariah Keopple, at home
It’s the holiday season, and we have to admit that the comfort of our home is a very real feeling. Talk to Victory defender Mariah Keopple, a Minnesota native. She scored the very first goal of her LPHF career on Saturday. A good one-timer, from behind the left circle, which tied the score for Montreal in the first period.
“It was incredible,” she said at a press conference. I had about 60 family members and friends in the arena. It was very special to be able to do it in front of them. »
Match after match, Keopple established herself as one of the most important players of the Victory. Against the Frost, she got 15 min 37 s of playing time, one of the busiest among her colleagues. She was also named the first star of the meet.
Not bad for a player who was not drafted in the inaugural LPHF auction in 2023 before signing a contract during training camp last season.
Day of firsts
It was Keopple’s first goal of the campaign, and it came as part of a day of firsts at the Xcel Energy Center.
After four games, Victory still had not scored in the first period. She seemed to want to quickly remedy this shortcoming, Saturday afternoon, by dominating the Frost on her ice at the start of the engagement. Still, Minnesota, thanks to Britta Curl-Salemme’s knee, struck first.
The logic of the course of the game was then respected: Keopple’s equalizer, at the end of the period, at the same time broke the bad luck at the start of the Victory matches. Then, Quebecer Alexandra Labelle went for her very first net in the Montreal uniform, grabbing her own return in front of the locals’ cage. She brought the score to 2-1 before the end of the first period.
The Frost was no slouch in this regard either. Ontario forward Brooke McQuigge scored the first of her LPHF career to make it 2-2 in the second.
Marie-Philip Poulin took care of the rest, putting an end to the streak of firsts by picking up her second of the season a few moments later. And what a goal it was, from the back after taking down goalkeeper Maddie Rooney, on a clever pass from his wife Laura Stacey.
Result of the races? A first defeat in regulation time for the Frost in five matches this season, and a Victory which temporarily rises to second place in the ranking.
“We managed the puck well at the blue lines in the first and second period,” analyzed Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. But we probably took our foot off the pedal in third. The Frost has such a powerful offense that if you give him chances, he’ll probably come away with a quality scoring chance. »
The numerical advantage is running out of fuel
Death, taxes, Montreal failing to score on the power play. Once again on Saturday, Kori Cheverie’s flock had three opportunities to showcase themselves in AN. All three times, they came away empty-handed.
La Victoire languishes in the bottom of the circuit in this regard, with a success percentage of 9.5%. Far behind the Ottawa Charge, at 16.7%, and very, very far from the Boston Fleet, good first, with 40%.
And yet, it’s not as if they ignore this facet of the game in favor of another: they practice it in every training session.
Worse still: the only two Victory goals in AN, in 21 attempts, came in the very first match, against Ottawa, on November 30. They will have the chance to hit the mark for the first time in a month, on December 30 at Place Bell, against the Fleet.
A beautiful parity
At the dawn of its first season, the LPHF promised us close, well-contested matches. The general observation is that the promise was achieved last year. And so far this season? The trend is unequivocal: 13 of the 16 matches played ended in two goals or less.
For Victory, his four triumphs in five matches were acquired with a single goal in advance. She only lost once, against New York, by a score of 4-1.
As in Animal Farmif all these matches seem equal, some are more equal than others. In this case, Saturday’s match between Frost and Victory was not the strongest entertainment of the year, despite the close score. But at least parity does exist in LPHF. And that’s good for everyone.