“To be in front of this crowd, the building erupts when to score,” said Montreal forward Kaitlin Willoughby, who along with Jade Downie-Landry also scored their first home goals at home before the sold-out crowd.

Gosling’s growth throughout her rookie season came at a time where she has been asked to take on more responsibility. She has met the moment, especially while Canadian Olympic team member Erin Ambrose was on long-term injured reserve after suffering an injury in the gold medal game, forcing her to miss eight games.

The 23-year-old London, Ont., native was drafted fourth overall by Montreal out of Clarkson University. She was seen as a player who could lead the defence with two-way play from the left side.

“She has been such an amazing piece to our puzzle,” said Victoire head coach Kori Cheverie. “Tonight, scoring that goal, I feel like that’s vintage Nicole Gosling that we saw in college.

“It’s harder to score goals in this league but she’s working, she has an impact regardless of whether she puts the puck in the back of the net.”

Montreal goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens, who has seen Gosling for years with the Canadian national team program, agreed.

“The way she is playing with confidence, we all knew that she would excel in the league,” said Desbiens. “But to see her progress it’s encouraging.”

Added Gosling: “I’ve been leaning on my teammates a lot. They’ve definitely helped me gain the confidence in being comfortable being myself, so I owe it a lot to them and each game just keeps getting better.”

The goal was Gosling’s third of the season. Montreal is riding a seven-game winning streak and has points in its last 16 games, losing only twice in overtime over that span.

In addition to extending its lead atop the PWHL standings, Montreal clinched home-ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs.

A unique PWHL rule sees the team that finishes atop the regular-season standings getting to pick its opponent in the semifinals, choosing between the teams that finish third and fourth. While that might have some squads second-guessing whether they want to provide their opponent with incentive, the Victoire _ who finished first a year ago only to lose in the first round _ aren’t shying away from it.

“We want first place,” said Cheverie. “In this league you might hear people say ‘second is better,’ but, it’s first place.

“That comes with responsibility as well, and I’m not thinking about that responsibility right now. I want our team to go into the playoffs feeling the best they possibly can and if we continue to win or continue to do good things, we will have that feeling going into playoffs.”

But for the Victoire, heading into the playoffs is more important than where they fini

“We’re concentrating more on the process, on the things we need to improve as a team to start the playoffs strong,” said Desbiens. “Sometimes the result of the game, you can work hard and you can still lose.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2026.

Jared Book, The Canadian Press