January 20th was the first time Toronto and Montreal faced each other and it lived up to the hype. Coming into the showdown, Toronto was coming off of three consecutive losses and a League worst negative 10 goal differential.  

Toronto came out flying looking like a new energized team but wouldn’t be the first team to strike. 11:21 into the first period, Montreal’s Sarah Bujold would rip a shot off of a board pass glove side from Leah Lum to put Montreal up 1-0. Toronto would continue to dominate the offensive zone possession and 3:01 into the second period Jocelyne LaRocque would bury a one-timer stick side from a feed from Rebecca Leslie to tie the game at one. Montreal would be the team to score next, Leah Lum would intercept a pass from the neutral zone and quickly pass it up the ice to Claire Dalton who would quickly flip it to Marie-Philip Poulin. Poulin would beat Campbell on the breakaway to retake the lead 2-1, 8:20 into the 2nd period. 

Between the first two periods Montreal goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens would stop 28 of 29 Toronto shots. However, Maggie Connors would rip a shot from distance through traffic to tie the game at 2 within the first few minutes of the 3rd period. Late in the game, Maggie Connors would take a huge hit to make a play in the offensive zone. Her teammate Sarah Nurse, would retrieve the puck in the corner and whip it to the front of the net where Natalie Spooner would bury it glove side. With little time left Captain clutch, Marie-Philip Poulin would bring the puck into the offensive zone, dangle around three Toronto players, and tuck it past Campbell to ignite the raucous Montreal home crowd and send this game into OT. 

Toronto Captain BlayreTurnbull would get called for slashing within a minute into overtime and Montreal’s powerplay would go to work. Kristen Campbell would arguably make the save of the season with an insane sprawling glove save on a rocket from Poulin labeled top shelf. As if the game couldn’t be any more intense, it would be head into the league’s first shootout. Toronto’s netminder Kristen Campbell would come up huge, stopping three or four of Poulin’s shots as well as blanking Tereza Vanisova and Laura Stacey. Ann-Renee Desbiens would show off her athleticism and ability with several pokechecks and split saves but Lauriane Rougeau would beat her glove side in the sixth round to win the game for Toronto.

This was one of the best hockey games I have watched in quite some time. It had everything you wanted in a hockey game; high-skill plays, big clean checks, and insane timely saves. The game came down to the wire, this was definitely a great start to another intense, passionate, and epic Canadian hockey rivalry.