Desbiens shines as Victoire take 2-1 series lead over Frost

The PWHL’s only Water Cup champion is on the verge of elimination.

The Montreal Victoire defeated the Minnesota Frost 2-1 in Game 3 of their first-round series Thursday night, putting the two-time defending champs just one loss away from their first playoff series loss in franchise history.

Montreal can earn their first-ever playoff series win Friday night if they beat the Frost in Game 4 on Friday night.

Victoire netminder Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 27 of 28 shots to get her second win of the series, while Minnesota’s Maddie Rooney made 17 saves in a losing effort.

Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie told media after the game she was impressed with her team’s defensive play on Thursday night.

“I think we can be really proud of what we’ve brought this year and what we’ve been growing and developing, in terms of taking pride in keeping the puck out of our net,” Cheverie said. “Certainly tonight, we had to play with some desperation there. We know that Minnesota is a highly offensive team, and in order to shut them down, we all have to be on the same page, and certainly, some desperation shot blocks come along with that.” 

Frost head coach Ken Klee said he loved his team’s effort in Game 3.

“They scored goals in back-to-back shifts in about – it felt like – 30 seconds. All of a sudden, we blinked and we were up (1-0) then down 2-1,” he said. “We had a great look at the end to try and tie it up, and it’s just one game. We’ve been here before. For us, we know it’s a long series, and we just have to bring our best tomorrow night.”

Frost defender Sidney Morin opened the scoring just minutes into the game after a Lee Stecklein point shot deflected off multiple players and squeaked past Desbiens to make it 1-0.

Britta Curl-Salemme, who was suspended from Game 2 after delivering a high hit on Victoire forward Kaitlin Willoughby in Game 1, was originally credited with the goal before the correction was made.

In a window of less than 30 seconds in the second period, the Victoire tied it up — then took the lead.

Maggie Flaherty carried the puck in the Frost zone and fired a shot at Rooney, then scooped up her own rebound and tucked in a wraparound to tie the game 1-1.

Moments later, Hayley Scamurra came away from a scrum in the Minnesota zone with the puck and fired a wrister past Rooney to give the Victoire the lead.

Montreal never looked back. The Frost outshot the Victoire 11-1 in the third period in a mad scramble to tie the game, but Desbiens, who made 38 saves to get the shutout in Montreal’s Game 2 win, stood tall.

Check out PWHL playoff hub here

Read Daily Faceoff’s Game 1 and Game 2 recap here

Read Tyler Kuehl’s Game 1 and Game 2 recaps of the series between the Boston Fleet and Ottawa Charge