After Team Canada won the Women’s World Championship Gold Medal, the five national team members who returned to Montreal’s team in the Professional Women’s Hockey League were full of confidence. Beating Team USA in a tournament where Canada fell to them in the preliminary round is a definite confidence builder.
How Desbiens, Poulin, O’Neil, Stacey, and Ambrose Are Making a Difference
Before the World Championships, Ann-Renée Desbiens had the annoying habit of committing one blunder per game. She would, for instance, come out of her net and turn the puck over, leading to a goal; maybe it was nerves, maybe she didn’t trust her defense enough, but whatever it was, it’s gone now. In her team’s 23rd game of the season, the goaltender got her first shutout, beating Ottawa 2-0, and she looked in perfect control right up to the end. Ottawa thought they had broken through, but after a coach’s challenge, it was ruled Desbiens had been interfered with.
In early March, captain Marie-Philip Poulin suffered a lower-body injury and missed PWHL Montreal’s last three games before the World Championship. She didn’t miss a single game at the World’s, though, making her return to action in Canada’s first preliminary game. After missing almost a month of action, she looked rusty and tentative on her skates early in the tournament, but you could see her improve in each game, gearing up for the showdown with the USA in which she got two goals and was named player of the game.
Related: Canada Defeats US in Overtime to Win Women’s Gold
She put her working boots back on in Montreal and made her way to the top of the league scorers with 22 points. We’ll see if her one-point lead holds until the end of the season. Natalie Spooner is in second place, but she still has three games left. Even if it doesn’t hold though, Poulin has shown how much of a leader and an inspiration she can be on any team, once again.
No matter how hard she worked, Kristin O’Neil just wasn’t getting the bounces in Montreal before the international tournament. As a depth player on the Canadian roster, though, the results came. In seven games, she scored two goals and added three assists. Back in league play, she finally got the bounces and was rewarded for her hard work. An integral part of Montreal’s power play which is finally clicking, O’Neil was all smiles in the post-game press conference on Wednesday. When asked if…
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