OTTAWA — The Ottawa Charge won a do-or-die Game 3 over the Montreal Victoire on Monday night in the Walter Cup Finals to keep the first-ever all-Canadian PWHL championship series going with a 2-1 win.
And it came in dramatic-comeback fashion with the Charge scoring twice with little more than five minutes to go in the game.
Ottawa’s own Rebecca Leslie scored the winner with less than a minute to go, jumping on a rebound and firing a wrist shot over the glove of Victoire goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens before throwing her hands in the air while a record crowd for a PWHL playoff game — 16,894 fans at the Canadian Tire Centre — erupted.
Game 3 was scoreless until nearly halfway through the third period, when Victoire defender Maureen Murphy’s point shot went off the back boards and the rebound landed right on the tape of Hayley Scamurra on the doorstep. Scamurra banged it home into the open left side of the net and then jumped in the air in celebration while fans — Victoire fans travel well, and they were loud — roared.
Charge rookie Peyton Hemp tied things up with 5:30 to go when she jumped on a rebound and fired it top-shelf.
This was the first game in the series in which Ottawa didn’t score first.
Leslie’s game-winner was reviewed due to a potential delay-of-game — the review process took a couple of minutes — and the crowd lost it again when the referee announced the goal on the ice stood.
After losing the first two games of the series in overtime, Ottawa now trails the best-of-five series 2-1. It returns to the Canadian Tire Centre on Wednesday for Game 4.