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Ann-Renee Desbiens made 35 saves and Marie-Philip Poulin scored in the shootout to help the Montreal Victoire beat the Toronto Sceptres in the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s first-ever game in Halifax on Wednesday night.
Poulin buried the lone goal in the shootout, with Desbiens stopping all five Sceptres attempts as a sold-out crowd of 10,438 inside Scotiabank Centre cheered equally for Toronto and Montreal.
Maya Labad scored in regulation for Montreal, and Anna Kjellbin scored for Toronto.
Sceptres goalie Raygan Kirk stopped 30 shots.
It marked the first of 16 neutral-site matchups — and the first of two in Halifax — this season on the PWHL’s Takeover Tour.
Montreal defeats Toronto 2-1 in a shootout at a sold-out Scotiabank Centre in the first game of the PWHL Takeover Tour
The league returns to the home of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Halifax Mooseheads on Jan. 11 when the Ottawa Charge face the Boston Fleet.
The PWHL is taking over Halifax with several events planned in the next few days. It all culminates with a game at Scotiabank Arena on Wednesday night. The CBC’s Josh Hoffman has the story.
Kjellbin opened the scoring at 3:26 in the first period to give the Sceptres an early lead. Labad tied it up at 12:16.
Toronto captain Blayre Turnbull almost scored the winner off her own rebound in the final seconds in regulation, but she was unable to put it past Desbiens.
Sceptres forward Emma Maltais appeared to win the game on a breakaway in overtime, but Toronto defender Renata Fast was called for interference on Montreal’s Jessica DiGirolamo moments before her shot crossed the goal line.
Up next
Victoire: Visit Vancouver on Saturday.
Sceptres: Visit New York on Sunday.
Torrent 4, Charge 1
Alex Carpenter had two goals and an assist, Hannah Bilka added a goal and two assists, and the Seattle Torrent scored a 4-1 home win on Wednesday night over the Ottawa Charge for their second consecutive win.
The expansion Torrent (2-0-1-1) have won back-to-back games for the first time in franchise history.
Julia Gosling also scored a goal for Seattle and Hilary Knight had two assists. Hannah Murphy had 24 saves. The 22-year-old Murphy — selected No. 15 overall, the first goaltender chosen, the the 2025 PWHL draft — has two wins in as many career appearances (both starts).
Rebecca Leslie scored a goal for Ottawa (1-0-0-5) with 37 seconds left. Sanni Ahola stopped 20 shots.
Host Karissa Donkin and The Athletic’s Hailey Salvian give their predictions for what Canada’s women’s hockey roster could look like at the upcoming Olympic Winter Games.
Gosling found the net on a power play with 3 seconds left in the first period to give Seattle a 1-0 lead. It was the third goal this season for Gosling. Hannah Bilka notched her third assist and Alex Carpenter collected her second.
Carpenter added a power-play goal almost 6 1/2 minutes into the second period and scored again about five minutes later to give the Torrent a 3-0 lead going into the third.
Bilka scored the first empty-net goal in franchise history to make it 4-0 with 1:30 remaining.
Up next
Ottawa: The Charge plays the Minnesota Frost on Sunday at Allstate Arena in Chicago.
Seattle: The Torrent hosts Boston on Sunday.
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