'Miracle in Laval': How the Montreal Victoire came back to win Game 1 of the Walter Cup final

With preciously seconds left wing in ordinance and her team up tracking by a goal, Montreal Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin sent a Hail Mary pass from the corner of the ice to the front of the Ottawa Charge net.

Just minutes before, Poulin had helped her alternate captain and wife, Laura Stacey, off the ice. A crash into the boards had left Stacey unable to put weight on both skates, and she looked to be in pain going down the tunnel.

It felt like the dagger in Montreal's game, almost like the twisting of a knife.

But Poulin was determined to not let that be it. Her head coach, Kori Cheverie, could see it on the bench when Poulin got the puck and sent it to the blue paint.

"You almost knew that Pou was possessed in that moment," Cheverie said.

In the mass of bodies and sticks and frantic energy, rookie defender Nicole Gosling was able to slip the puck past Ottawa goaltender Gwyneth Philips to tie the game, with 2.1 seconds left on the clock.

"I didn't believe it," Cheverie said about the tying goal. "I got hit in the face with a stick. They jumped on the bench. I thought my ear was bleeding. I didn't know what was going on. But for our team be able to be able to pull something off like that, I just feel like it has gone with how we've played throughout this entire [playoffs] of just never quitting."

Gosling gave the Victoire hope, and then Montreal's Abby Roque provided elation when the puck bonked off her helmet and into the net for the overtime winner. The Victoire defeated Ottawa 3-2 in Game 1 of the best-of-five Walter Cup final series.

Abby Roque's OT winner lifts Victoire over Charge in Walter Cup final opener

"I just saw the puck go right between my eyes and I was like, OK. And then it somehow went in and I was just hoping that's a goal," Roque said.

It capped off a game full of momentum swings for the Victoire in front of a home crowd inside Laval, Que.'s Place Bell.

Ottawa twice held the lead off goals from Rebecca Leslie, the Ottawa native who is playing for her hometown team.

Both times, the Victoire came back.

"A miracle in Laval," Cheverie said.

The first equalizer came from Roque, who scored off a pass from Nadia Mattivi, the Italian team captain who turned a standout performance at the Olympics into an opportunity with Montreal.

This is Roque's first appearance in the postseason, after a trade last offseason brought her to Montreal from New York. It's exactly the kind of hockey Roque, who now has five points over six playoff games, is built to play.

"You put her around the net in a big moment, and she's done that for us quite a few times this year," Cheverie said. "I'm really happy that she's found the back of the net because she's doing a lot of really good things."

Why the Montreal Victoire vs. Ottawa Charge Walter Cup final is historic

Roque's overtime winner was assisted by Stacey, who returned to the ice at the beginning of overtime, after needing to be helped off the ice less than a half an hour before. Her return prompted "Stacey" chants throughout Place Bell.

Even some of her teammates didn't know she'd return until they saw her skating laps at the beginning of the period to test things out, Roque said.

"That's quite the character person and player to come back after that," Cheverie said.

Both Montreal's Ann-Renée Desbiens and Ottawa's Philips made 23 saves in the game.

For Ottawa, the loss put a damper on a stellar performance by Leslie. She's had a career year on the Charge's top line, and drove her team's offence on Thursday.

She opened the scoring with a goal that took a ton of patience. Desbiens saved Leslie's initial shot. But she stayed in front of the net and got her stick on the puck to put in the rebound.

"I think she's gained a lot of confidence especially this year, because she's always had it," Ottawa defender Jocelyne Larocque said about her teammate, as she praised her speed and scoring ability. "So I think it's that confidence and all of us believing in her."

Then, it looked like Leslie had sealed the game with a goal that saw her deke around traffic at the front of the net and deposit the puck five-hole on Desbiens. Two seconds more and it would have been enough.

Despite the loss, Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod liked the way her team played.

"So many elements of our game we just executed incredibly well," MacLeod said. "You've got to like how we're going and at the end of the day, it's a five-game series. You park this one and you move on to the next."

They'll look to do that on Saturday, when Game 2 is set for 2 p.m. Back at Place Bell.

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