PWHL Ottawa snaps two-game losing streak with win in Montreal

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The fourth time was actually the charm for PWHL Ottawa against PWHL Montreal.

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After losing the first three meetings against its closest rival, Ottawa finally turned the tables with a vital 4-2 victory in front of 10,172 fans at Place Bell in Laval on Sunday.

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The win gives Ottawa 20 points (5-6 in regulation, 0-5 in overtime) and into a tie for the fourth and final playoff spot with Boston, which does have a game in hand.

Montreal remains tied with Toronto for first place, both with 30 points.

Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod said that while it was great to pick up the win, “more exciting is how we did it.

“We’re starting to see the pieces of our game come together,” MacLeod, whose team had lost its previous two games, told reporters in Montreal. “There were more blocked shots today. There were more gritty back checks. We moved the puck a little harder. We’re still managing blue lines in the third period but we were better at it today than the last game.

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“Then the resiliency … we let a couple in, in the third period, but then we responded incredibly well on both occasions. That’s all stuff we’ve been working through as a group all season, and it’s nice to see it come into play today.”

Brianne Jenner and Aneta Tejralova each scored and an assist for Ottawa, while Daryl Watts and Gabbie Hughes had the other two goals and Katerina Mrazova was named the game’s first star with three helpers.

Ottawa goalie Emerance Maschmeyer was the second star with 34 saves, while Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 29 shots in the Montreal net.

Scoring for the home team were Laura Stacey and Melodie Daoust.

Jenner had the only goal of the first period and Watts had the only goal of the second. Stacey finally solved Maschmeyer with 8:50 left in the third, but Tejralova restored Ottawa’s two-goal lead two minutes and 14 seconds later.

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Daoust kept Montreal alive with 2:58 left on the clock before Hughes sealed the victory with an empty netter.

“Montreal is a great team, but I think for us it’s been building on each game,” Maschmeyer told reporters. “There’s little adjustments that we made, that I think showed tonight. I think an issue we’ve had is just consistency for 60 minutes, and tonight was I’d say the first game that we were as close (to playing) 60 minutes as possible. We focused on the game plan.”

ICE CHIPS: Ottawa added to its coaching staff on Sunday with the hiring of Jordan Colliton, who inherits a number of responsibilities, including video. A graduate of the University of Maine, Colliton was a long-time coach with the Mount Royal University Cougars near Calgary. Most recently she coached Leksands IF in the Swedish Women’s Hockey League.

dbrennan@postmedia.com

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