Victoire thrilled to keep the momentum rolling

By Canadian Press on March 4, 2026.

TORONTO — The Olympic break wasn’t long enough to halt the Montreal Victoire’s momentum.

Marie-Philip Poulin scored the shootout winner as the Victoire beat the Toronto Sceptres 4-3 on Tuesday at Coca-Coliseum in Toronto for their sixth straight victory.

Montreal won three in a row just before Milan and have now rattled off three straight as it prepares for a 12-day break in its Professional Women’s Hockey League schedule.

“I think every time I go to media, I get told that there’s some sort of new streak that I would prefer us not to talk about,” Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie said. “For us, we looked at these three games and just a small little micro-cycle that we wanted to focus on, take it game by game.”

The Victoire (9-4-0-5) now lead the PWHL with 35 points, three clear of the second-place Boston Fleet.

They’ve taken eight of nine points available since the break — but Cheverie said the team wanted more.

“I love that the team wanted nine out of nine points. We got eight out of nine. We’re happy with that. … We have another segment coming up with 12 days off of games and so we’re just looking at that as winning that moment,” Cheverie said.

Montreal was 64 seconds away from completing that nine-for-nine goal before Sceptres forward Jesse Compher scored to tie the game late with the goalie pulled to force overtime.

After the teams were unable to end it in the extra frame, a shootout featuring seven goals fell in the Victoire’s favour.

Poulin, the team captain, scored two of those goals after being denied by Sceptres goalie Raygan Kirk on her first attempt.

“That first one she kind of caught me off guard obviously, but I just needed to reset,” Poulin said.

The Beauceville, Que., native also scored in regulation for her first goal since returning to PWHL action from the knee injury she sustained at the Olympics.

Earlier in the game, Poulin was honoured for breaking the Olympic goals record and received loud applause from the home crowd. Some boos could be heard mixed in with polite claps when the videoboard acknowledged the U.S. gold medal.

“It is very special. We feel the love, obviously through Olympics, coming back on home soil, playing in Canada, playing in Toronto, we’re so lucky. Obviously you do get emotional,” Poulin said.

“I made eye contact with (Canada teammates) Renata (Fast) and Blayre (Turnbull) before the game and obviously we do feel that love. It was quite an emotional week last week and playing against each other and getting to feel that love was truly special.”

For the first time since the quarterfinals in Milan, however, Poulin didn’t play in front of Ann-Renée Desbiens, as the goalie got a rare night off in favour of backup Sandra Abstreiter.

Abstreiter looked shaky early, allowing a goal on the first shot she faced from the Sceptres’ Maggie Connors on a bad angle, but she settled in from there.

“It was just a whole team effort at that point. Nobody was like mad at me for that anything,” Abstreiter said with a laugh. “It was honestly just them keeping me positive and then I was able to clear my head from that as well and stay positive and that’s how I’m then personally able to make some saves.”

The Sceptres, meanwhile, continued to look strong in their return from the break even in a losing effort, picking up a point in their third straight game after a pair of wins on the West Coast.

Toronto (6-1-4-8), which played its first home game in over six weeks, now sits fifth in the league with 24 points, equal with the New York Sirens for the final playoff spot but having played two more games.

Turnbull and Maggie Connors joined Compher on the scoresheet, while Daryl Watts had an assist and a shootout goal in her return from a one-game absence.

“I know the group that was here during the Olympic break put in a lot of time, a lot of effort, a lot of hours spent at the rink. … So I think the group that was at the Olympics owed it to our teammates who were back in Toronto to show up in Seattle ready to play and ready to fight for points,” Turnbull said.

Now, the stretch drive of the regular season is upon them.

“Over break, we decided to flip a switch, and you can’t change the past. So we looked at these three games in five days as a difficult block, but we really challenged ourselves,” Connors said.

“Seven out of nine points that we got, that does give us a lot of confidence.”  