LAVAL, Quebec (AP) — Shiann Darkangelo broke a third-period tie, Gwyneth Philips made 31 saves and the Ottawa Charge beat the Montreal Victoire 3-2 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the PWHL semifinal series.
Darkangelo took a pass from Emily Clark, and beat goalie Ann-Renee Desbiens with a wrist shot from the right side at 9:17.
“Clarky made a great pass out to me and kind of made my job easy to get the puck on net — and in back the net,” Darkangelo said. “Just try to hit the net there, and good things happen.”
Charge captain Brianne Jenner had a power-play goal and Ashton Bell also scored.
Game 2 of the best-of-five series is Sunday in Laval.
Regular-season champion Montreal elected to face third-place Ottawa instead of fourth-place Minnesota.
“We don’t need external motivation,” Ottawa coach Carla MacLeod said. “We’ve come into this playoffs confident in what allowed us to get to this point. It’s not about who we’re playing or where we’re playing. It’s that we are playing, and we’re playing Ottawa Charge hockey right now.”
Maureen Murphy and Marie-Philip Poulin had power-play goals for Montreal. Desbiens stopped 24 shots.
“It’s tough. Hockey is tough,” Montreal forward Laura Stacey said. “I had to take a deep breath before coming in here, because it hurts. Losing hurts, especially in the playoffs when you want it that bad.”
Jenner opened the scoring on a power play at 4:54 of the first period, and Murphy tied it on a power play with 7:47 left in the period.
Bell put Ottawa back on top at 5:07 of the second, and Poulin tied it on a power play at 7:12 of the period.
“We have a lot of respect for them and a lot of respect for the way that they play,” Jenner said. “But at the same time, we’re confident. When we bring a solid 60 minutes, we have a great chance of beating any club.”
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AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey
