For PWHL New York's first home game, NHL Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier dropped the puck between Montreal's captain Marie Philippe Poulin and New York alternate captain Alex Carpenter. Meanwhile, Billie Jean King whose company (Bille Jean King Enterprises) purchased the Premier Hockey Federation and formed the PWHL along with the Mark Walter Group, was in attendance.
Honored to have icon Billie Jean King join us as we celebrate our first home game in New York! pic.twitter.com/IBJHHubXO1
— PWHL New York (@PWHL_NewYork) January 11, 2024
May PWHL Hockey in New York Commence
PWHL New York came out and played stronger in the opening five minutes of the first period than Montreal. The women dressed in their turquoise home jerseys outmuscled their opponents clad in cream sweaters and just over six minutes into the game, got on the scoreboard.
Jessie Eldridge won a race to a loose puck, getting control of it around the right face-off dot before ripping a wrist shot that beat Montreal’s goalie, Elaine Chuli high into the upper left corner of the net.
First goal in the new crib and its beautiful! 🤩 pic.twitter.com/VgkTLDUUkZ
— PWHL New York (@PWHL_NewYork) January 11, 2024
However, the visitors responded two minutes later when Marie-Phillipe Poulin beat New York goaltender Corinne Schroeder on an assist from Montreal teammate Erin Ambrose.
At the end of the first, the score was tied and the visitors held a slight 11-10 advantage in shots on goal. New York took two penalties while Montreal stayed out of the box, which prevented the hosts from building a lead.
In the second period, discipline was lacking for New York head coach Howie Draper’s team again. After Montreal took a penalty five minutes in, New York’s Emma Woods was flagged for delay of game at 9:06 and the visitors took advantage with goals from Daoust and Ambrose in quick succession.
27 seconds into the third period, Ella Shelton scored a shot from the point that went through a heavy screen in front of Montreal's net.
Ella Shelton the woman you are pic.twitter.com/gw3KXz0Gvv
— PWHL New York (@PWHL_NewYork) January 11, 2024
Despite this, New York would concede again just under five minutes into the third period on a tic-tac-toe passing play that ended with Montreal's Kennedy Marchment scoring a wicked wrister to give Montreal a 4-2 lead. After the six-minute mark of the third period, Montreal were able to build on their lead with two more goals from Poulin, including an empty net goal. Poulin, who is captain of the Canadian national women’s team scored a hat trick, which is only the second that the PWHL has seen this season, after Grace Zumwinkle scored three goals against Montreal on Jan. 6.
This game could serve as a wakeup call for PWHL New York, who defeated Toronto soundly in their first game of the season, but now have lost two straight games including this hard loss. Looking at the shots, New York only got outshot by three (35-32) and outshot Montreal in the first and second period. However, the turning point of this game may have come in the second period when Montreal scored two goals on the same power play, and then held New York off the scoresheet. Montreal goalie, Elaine Chuli stopped 30 of 32 shots, while on the other hand Schroeder turned aside 30 of 35 shots.
Following the game, the first star of the game, Poulin, described what went into victory over New York.
“We stay together. Obviously, they have a great team but, for us, we wanted to put the puck on net, and we did, and we were able to capitalize on the rebounds.”
What's Next for PWHL New York
It's important for Draper's squad to move on from losing their first home game so they are ready to play their next game. That will be a date with Minnesota on the road this Sunday at 3:00 pm.
Minnesota are the only undefeated team left out of the six teams in the league (3-0), so this weekend's matchup will be difficult and possibly crucial to the team led by captain Micah Zandee-Hart. The PWHL New York captain has missed the first three games of the season and there is no word on whether she will be healthy in time for the next game. Obviously, Zandee-Hart's presence has been missing from the Big Apple Blueline, although New York's defensive rock Shelton's 3 points are tied with Carpenter for the team lead, so far in the early stages of the season.
The bottom-line is that PWHL New York's first game within the confines of their home territory is over. Now, Coach Draper and his staff will be hard at work, helping this team learn from its mistakes so they can be ready to put in a better 60-minute game performance than they did while the home opener jitters were in their stomachs.
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