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they’re hitting in the pwhl . the thud of open-ice hits and the crunch of a player crashing into the boards are part of the soundtrack of a league that has emphatically announced itself to the world. watch half a period and you’ll forget that you’re watching a women’s game.
“for sure, we were ready for the rough play,” says montreal superstar marie-philip poulin , the woman known as “captain clutch” for her heart-stopping olympic goals. “we knew what to expect from utica (where the six teams in the league played a series of exhibition games) and from the season opener.”
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for those who wonder why the pwhl has generic jersey designs with the team’s city diagonally across the front of the jerseys, the answer is in the misstep made when the new league submitted an atrocious list of names to the u.s. patent office: the boston wicked, minnesota superior, montreal echo, new york sound, ottawa alert and toronto torch.
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on paper, at least, montreal also has the players, beginning with poulin and all-world goalie ann-renée desbiens. poulin was off to a somewhat slow start but scored a hat trick in wednesday’s win over new york. desbiens was outplayed in goal in a 3-0 loss to minnesota in montreal’s second game of the season.
ironically, on a night of firsts in montreal’s opener before 8,138 delirious fans in ottawa, it was poulin who drew the first penalty for her team and poulin who had the first penalty shot stopped. none of that mattered after poulin fed linemate and lifemate laura stacey for the tying goal and ann-sophie bettez pounced on a loose puck and whipped a wrist shot home for the overtime winner (3-2) .
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