Ottawa Charge Their Way To Victory Over Montreal, Lead Series 2-1
Justin Tang/The Canadian Press
By Tyler Beauchesne
After an intense four-overtime loss to the Montreal Victoire on Sunday to tie the series, the Ottawa Charge returned to TD Place for a chance to bounce back from that devastating loss. The vibes in this building were phenomenal. It was so loud that the Apple Watches in attendance showed the high-decibel warning notification. There were a lot of “ref you suck” chants and a new one: “you chose this” which is a taunt to Montreal for picking Ottawa as their opponent in the semifinal round.
We also had Senators players in attendance to show their support, as Linus Ullmark and Donavan Sebringo were in attendance for the game. You love to see NHL players frequently support this beautiful league, and what a show those goalies put on for the former Vezina winner.
What better way to follow up a four-overtime game than with a phenomenal goalie duel between Gwyneth Philips and Ann-Renee Desbiens. This was a hard-fought battle between both teams as Desbiens was able to stop 24 of 25 shots in order to sustain the Victoire’s chances in this game. For most of the game, Ottawa was trying everything on her but had no real answer. It was a tale as old as time: an Ottawa hockey team outworking their opponent but not beating them…or so I thought.
Throughout most of the second period, Montreal fought back, but the Charge were able to hold off their efforts well. The score stayed 0-0, but this amazing moment happened when Tereza Vanišová got cross-checked by a Victoire player and blew a kiss to her as she went into the penalty box. That moment solidified her as one of my new favourite Charge players (I have not fully recovered from Lexie Adzija’s departure to Boston, but I will move on).
After this play, my good friend Alyssa Lerae pointed out this amazing play to me: Vanišová won the Isobel Cup with an overtime game-winner for the Toronto Six. She is an amazing player and one of my new favourites.
In the third period, the Charge were making their final push to take the game. That is when it finally happened: The Charge scored a goal. It was Mannon McMahon (phenomenal name by the way) who got a nice tap-in goal off a rebound, assisted by Gabbie Hughes and Ronja Savolainen, to finally beat Desbiens in the net. It was 1-0 Ottawa at last. There was hope for the team to close this game out. It was almost threatened by a brutal call, where a Victorie player charged at Ashton Bell when Hughes retaliated at the player. However, the Charge was able to successfully kill it off and went back to 5-on-5 for the rest of the period, where they won the game and took the series lead back.
The game MVP was Philips, who stood on her head throughout the entire game. She got the shutout to keep Ottawa in the game and ensure that all it took was one goal for the team to win. The rookie has been phenomenal in holding the ship down in place of Emerance Maschmeyer, who has been on LTIR. McMahon, of course, deserves her flowers too for getting the game winner to win in regulation, as well as Jocelyne Larocque for a lot of important defensive plays to stop the Victoire.
This is a beautiful moment for the city of Ottawa as the Charge were not projected to win this series, which is why the Victoire chose them for this series. The next game is on Friday, where the Charge are hopeful in closing the series out, which would move them on to the finals for the first time in franchise history! What a year it has been for Ottawa sports, go Charge!
