Minnesota Frost defender Jincy Roese (33) celebrates her Game 1 overtime winner against the Montreal Victoire on Saturday.Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press
Jincy Roese scored 4:30 into overtime as the Minnesota Frost defeated the Montreal Victoire 5-4 in Game 1 of their Professional Women’s Hockey League semi-final series on Saturday.
The win at Place Bell gives Minnesota a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five series, taking home-ice advantage away from the regular-season champion Victoire.
Katy Knoll, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Grace Zumwinkle and Sidney Morin also scored for the defending Walter Cup champion Frost. Taylor Heise, Kelly Pannek and Klara Hymlarova had two assists each, while Maddie Rooney made 21 saves as she extended a personal six-game playoff winning streak.
Laura Stacey, with a hat trick, and Shiann Darkangelo scored for Montreal. Ann-Renee Desbiens made 24 saves. Marie-Philip Poulin and Abby Roque each had two assists.
The game turned up a notch in the second period as seven of the nine goals in the game were scored after the opening 20 minutes.
With 47.1 seconds left in the second, with Minnesota holding a 3-2 lead, Frost forward Britta Curl-Salemme was called for a hit to the head of Kaitlin Willoughby and assessed a five-minute major and game misconduct.
On the ensuing power play 2:56 into the third period, Stacey took a pass after a line change and fired a shot from the right circle past Rooney.
Minnesota answered right back, with Morin scoring a short-handed goal on the same Curl-Salemme penalty with a shot from the top of the circles that went five-hole on Desbiens. It was the second time Minnesota scored while a Montreal goal was being announced.
It was then Montreal’s turn to respond. After Morin took a penalty on the ensuing shift, Stacey completed the hat trick when she charged the net to put home a rebound in the crease into the open net. It was her second power-play goal of the game.
The three goals came in a span of 1:50, with Minnesota scoring 50 seconds after Stacey’s second goal and Stacey scoring one minute after Morin’s 4-3 goal.
Minnesota opened the scoring with 11:24 left in the first period when Knoll drove the net and scored on a backhand feed from Hymlarova off the side wall.
The Frost doubled their lead late in the first period on the power play. Heise skated the puck down low and put it toward the crease where Coyne Schofield got a stick on it and it trickled past Desbiens.
Montreal cut the deficit to 2-1 when Darkangelo potted a rebound off of a Kati Tabin shot just 2:45 into the second period.
The goal came a couple of minutes after a great Desbiens save on Heise. Heise broke in alone behind the Victoire defence and deked out the Montreal goaltender, but Desbiens managed to get a pad on the shot appearing to head toward the empty net.
Stacey tied the game when she scored on a wraparound with 2:11 remaining, sneaking the puck past Rooney.
Just 46 seconds after Montreal made the game 2-2, Zumwinkle picked up a loose bouncing puck and fired a shot over Desbiens to give Minnesota a 3-2 lead with 1:25 left in the second period.
Game 2 will be played on Tuesday night at Place Bell.