For the first time since my 28^th birthday, the Boston Fleet would return to Montréal to take on the Victoire. Heading into this game, both teams are headed in very different directions, as the Victoire are a mere two points out of first place in the PWHL with a game in hand on the Minnesota Frost, while the Fleet currently sit in the league’s cellar with a mere 6 points. At this point in the season, Boston’s offense is being carried by superstar defender Megan Keller, who has four points in five games, while Montréal has an unlikely scoring leader in “rookie” Abby Boreen. In goal for this contest, the Victoire will once again turn to Ann-Renée Desbiens, while the Fleet will look to Emma Söderberg for the first time in 2024-25.

               The opening five minutes of the first period were conservative, as both teams were trying to establish their systems in both the neutral and offensive zones with little success on either end. Boston would go to a power play in the sixth minute but were unable to generate any high danger opportunities. Within a minute of that power play’s conclusion, the Victoire would get their first advantage opportunity of the game. Montréal would begin to generate several chances toward the end of the woman advantage, but were unable to register a goal, but were handed another power play opportunity within a minute of the first one’s conclusion. Despite several good looks on the power play, both teams made it into the second half of the opening period scoreless. At the sixteenth minute the Victoire had a 4-on-1 opportunity that led to a trio of high danger scoring chances, but Söderberg and the Fleet defense rose to the challenge to keep the game tied at zeroes. Both teams would have sequences of solid possession, but neither team would have a great look until Claire Dalton would beat Sydney Bard off the rush to cut to the net to make the game 1-0 for the Victoire with less than a minute remaining in the period.

The opening five minutes of the period were conservative once again, with the Victoire getting the better looks as the period progressed. Once again, right around the fifth minute mark of a period, a team went to the woman advantage, this time it would be Montréal. Both teams would have at least one high danger look during the Victoire power play, but neither team would make a change to the scoreboard. As the period reached its midway point, the Fleet began to sustain some pressure in the Montréal zone. Hannah Bilka would take advantage of a neutral zone giveaway to feed Hilary Knight to even the score at one goal apiece. After the Boston goal, the Victoire were able to take control of scoring change generation for the next several minutes; however, despite a pair of phenomenal opportunities, they were unable to get a second goal past Söderberg in the sequence. In the sixteenth minute of the frame, Montréal would be called for a hook in the offensive zone that would put them on the penalty kill. However, this would not last long as an offensive zone miscue by the Fleet would allow Claire Dalton to spring Kristin O’Neill for a breakaway goal that would bring the Victoire back into the lead. Less than three minutes later Anna Wilgren would extend Montréal’s lead to two goals, a margin of 3-1. Before the end of the period, Megan Keller was hit high by Catherine Dubois in the neutral zone, which led to chaos for both the teams and the officials. Eventually, this was reconciled as a 5-minute major and a game misconduct.

Within the first 90-seconds of the period, Boston struggled to establish much of anything to open the power play, as their passing continued to lack precision. Three minutes into the period, Marie-Philip Poulin made a sensational block on a Keller slapshot. Just before the end of the major power play, Susanna Tapani managed to walk into the slot to get a good shot in on Desbiens but was unable to draw the Fleet any closer on the scoreboard. Through the mid-point in the period, Montréal was both succeeding in controlling scoring chances and salting the clock to limit Boston’s comeback opportunities. Boston would catch a break from the Victoire at mid-point in the period, as Maureen Murphy would take a slashing penalty in retaliation on a check from Tapani. Once again, Boston would fail to accomplish anything on the powerplay besides getting in two minutes of extra cardio. Shortly after the penalty expired, the Victoire would go to player advantage following a interesting call on Jamie Lee Rattray. Montréal was unable to find a goal on the power play, but Erin Ambrose came very close to extending the lead mere seconds after the penalty expired. With just under 3 minutes left, with the goalie pulled, Kati Tabin would take the second selfish Montréal penalty of the period with a retaliatory cross check in the corner. Boston would be unsuccessful on the power play and would be unable to draw the game any closer. Montréal would pick up another victory by a score of 3-1.

Overall, this game served as a great measuring stick for where the best and worst teams in the PWHL stand. There aren’t a lot of big headlines in terms of star power in most games involving the Fleet, as the team plays solid group defense to prevent a large volume of the high impact flashy plays that one sees with the other five PWHL teams. Additionally, the Fleet play an archaic brand of hockey that also prevents them from creating and generating mainly highlight reel opportunities of their own. With that said, this was another great showing from Claire Dalton, who is one of the league’s most effective middle-six forwards especially when she’s able to use her speed and size in transition when the opportunity arises. Both the second and third Victoire goals were created by Dalton’s physical tools and patience to transition from her strong defensive playing style to creating offensive zone mismatches. I’ve been a big critic of Courtney Kessel’s system the last year plus, and nothing that happened in tonight’s game has changed that for me. If anything, the lack of fundamental execution by the Fleet has me further speculating about this coaching staff as their stagnant offense continues to regress,

              

Christian Bergeron