The Victoire were victorious over the Ottawa Charge on Friday night with a 2-1 win at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.
Mikyla Grant-Mentis played a handful of games for Ottawa’s Professional Women’s Hockey League (PWHL) team last season before being released.
On Friday she came back to haunt her old team with the winning goal in a Montreal Victoire uniform.
“It felt great. Every time I play Ottawa I have a little bit of oomph in me, but it was nice to get a goal this time,” Grant-Mentis said, before responding to a question of whether she had any bad feelings toward Ottawa.
“I love all the girls.”
Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin also scored for the visitors, who got a 29-save performance from Elaine Chuli. The lone goal for the Charge came off the stick of Ashton Bell. Emerance Maschmeyer made 29 saves in a losing effort.
Trailing 2-1, the Charge pulled Maschmeyer with over two minutes to play and with under a minute left Savannah Harmon just missed tying the game as her shot deflected off Chuli before going off the crossbar.
“I felt very confident every time the puck was around our crease. She [Chuli] kept things calm out there and obviously the cherry on top was the save at the end. That’s why I believe we have the top goaltending in the league” Victoire coach Kori Cheverie said.
Biggest crowd ever for the Charge
It was the first game the Charge played at the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the Ottawa Senators, and they drew a team record 11,065 fans.
That, however, didn’t seem to lift the Charge according to coach Carla MacLeod.
“We came out a little bit flat. We got on our heels for the first couple of periods, to be honest, and we just didn’t have enough jam in our game,” MacLeod said.
“We were responding to Montreal and not sort of dictating. Certainly thought the third period looked more like us and it was reflected in how the ice was tilted as well.”
After a scoreless opening period the Victoire scored a pair of second-period goals and took a 2-1 lead into the second intermission.
Poulin stole the puck from Charge defenceman Aneta Tejralova at the Ottawa blue line and scored on a breakaway at 8:02, beating Maschmeyer high glove side.
The Charge got that one back when Bell collected a rebound off a Brianne Jenner shot and beat Chuli in the Montreal goal at 15:11.
‘We want to learn from this’
It was the first game of the season for Jenner, the Charge captain, and while she said it was nice to contribute, a win is the ultimate goal.
“I don’t know if I have an explanation right now but we certainly want to learn from this and have a better showing the next time we hit the ice,” Jenner said.
“I think the crowd gave us a lot of energy and it was a great opportunity for us and I think at times we were the better team, we just need to be more consistent with that. … I felt great. Really excited to be back with this group and I missed being out there with them. I felt really good physically.”
Montreal took a 2-1 lead at 17:57 of the period when Claire Daulton circled the Ottawa net before finding Grant-Mentis in the slot for a quick shot past Maschmeyer.
The Victoire are off until Dec. 21 when they will be in Toronto to play the Sceptres. The Charge play their next five games on the road starting on Dec. 17 against the Boston Fleet.