PWHL-leading Montreal beats Boston in OT for 3rd straight win
New York forward Carpenter scores in OT for comeback win over Ottawa
Erin Ambrose scored a goal and assisted on Laura Stacey's winner in overtime to help Montreal beat host Boston 2-1 Sunday in Professional Women's Hockey League action.
Ambrose, on the left side, slipped a pass between two defenders and in front of Boston goaltender Aerin Frankel to Stacey at the far post for a tap-in goal with 2:24 left in the extra frame.
"I just drove the net. Erin had a ton of patience, and I put my stick on the ice and she made a perfect pass to me back door," Stacey said.
Ambrose opened the scoring with 4:01 left in the first period. Marie-Philip Poulin dropped a one-touch pass to Ambrose, who knifed in front of the net and beat Frankel to make it 1-0.
Elaine Chuli got her third win in as many starts this season for Montreal (3-2-2-1) and stopped 26 of the 27 shots she faced. Her .962 save percentage this season is best in the league.
WATCH l Stacey sinks Boston in OT:
Sophie Shirley scored her first goal of the season for Boston (2-2-0-2) about four minutes into the third period to make it 1-1.
Poulin is second in the PWHL in points (nine) and tied for second with six goals.
Sunday's game marked the second matchup between the two teams, with Boston taking the first game 3-2 in overtime at Montreal's Verdun Auditorium.
"Coming into Boston against a good team and getting two points, that's big for us, especially after they came into our house and took [points] from us," Stacey said. "We're proud of the effort."
The Canadian contingent includes Spooner, Nurse, Fast, Larocque, Turnbull and Emma Maltais (Toronto).
Playing for the U.S. will be Hensley, Pannek, Schofield, Kali Flanagan (Toronto), Jesse Compher (Toronto), Natalie Buchbinder (Minnesota), Taylor Heise (Minnesota), Grace Zumwinkle (Minnesota) and Clair DeGeorge (Minnesota).
Montreal returns to action against host Toronto on Feb. 16 for their second matchup of the season. Toronto won 4-3 in a shootout on Jan. 20 at the Verdun Auditorium.
Boston hosts Toronto on Feb. 14.
The full schedule of PWHL games airing on CBC Sports this season is available here.
Carpenter leads New York to comeback win
Ottawa's PWHL team was better than New York for 54 minutes and 54 seconds but that wasn't enough.
Alex Carpenter scored her second goal of the game at 2:12 of the overtime period to complete an impressive comeback by New York for a 4-3 win in Ottawa earlier on Sunday. The visitors had trailed 3-0 with just over five minutes remaining in regulation.
"I think the belief in our room is so strong and it finally showed today," said Carpenter. "We've lost a couple and this feels good for us.
"This is finally what all of our hard work has been and how close this team has been."
WATCH | Carpenter completes comeback in OT:
Abby Roque and Jade Downie-Landry also scored third period goals for New York (2-2-1-4). Corinne Schroeder made 39 saves for the win.
Ottawa (2-0-4-1) opened the scoring in the first at 7:37. Ottawa had just missed on a great chance but then Emily Clark found Aneta Tejralova at the blue line and fired a shot past Schroeder for her first of the season.
Ottawa continued to dictate the pace and appeared to take a 2-0 lead on a delayed penalty call late in the second period when Daryl Watts but the puck in the net, but it was ruled the whistle had been blown before her shot crossed the goal line.
The home team took a 2-0 lead control in the third when Ottawa when Hayley Scamurra created a turnover and found Lexie Adzija, who beat Schroeder five-hole for her team-leading fifth goal of the season. Savannah Harmon made it 3-0 midway through the period and then it was all New York.
Roque got New York on the board at 14:54 when she got behind Ottawa's D and beat an outstretched Maschmeyer. Downie-Landry cut the lead to one 44 seconds later.
New York completed the comeback with Carpenter scoring a power-play goal off a cross-crease pass from Roque.
"The one thing that I love about our team is I don't think at any point did I feel we felt defeated," said New York coach Howie Draper. "We've proven before that we're a resilient team and we did it again tonight."
There was no denying the loss stung for Ottawa, who has yet to find a way to win in overtime this season going 0-4 in extra time.
While her team was clearly disappointed by the result MacLeod said there was much to learn from Sunday's game.
"Sometimes these ones that sting, we've had other games with similar outcome that didn't sting the same, but you just have to let the sting settle," she said. "I think that's why we're all fierce competitors and that's why we're in this industry.
"You're going to be on the good side of some of those and you're going to be on the bad side of some of them."
This was the first of four games between the two teams.
With files from The Canadian Press' Lisa Wallace, Tim Wharnsby and CBC Sports
