LAVAL \u2014 After suffering the disappointment of losing in the gold-medal game of the Olympics just over a week ago, Marie-Philip Poulin and Laura Stacey had to quickly re-focus on the next goal: to win the Walter Cup.<\/p>\n
Poulin missed the Montreal Victoire\u2019s first game back last Thursday with a lower-body injury but returned on Sunday and had an assist in the team\u2019s 4-0 win over the Minnesota Frost. The win moved them into first place in the PWHL, although the Boston Fleet have two games in hand.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s extremely special that we now have this league that gives us the opportunity to come and play and chase another dream, another goal of winning that Walter Cup,\u201d said Montreal forward Stacey.<\/p>\n
Stacey, who had a goal in the win on Sunday to snap her eight-game PWHL goal drought, chose to return to the now-defunct Canadian Women\u2019s Hockey League in 2018 after winning a silver medal at the 2018 Olympics. She ended up scoring the overtime winner that clinched the Clarkson Cup for the Markham Thunder.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s hard at first,\u201d she said. \u201cThe Olympics has obviously been our pinnacle since we were little girls. So, with the tough ending, to pull ourselves back together, to come back here it took a lot of mental fortitude. The biggest learning curve is how to handle all those emotions all at once when they smack you in the face and you\u2019re flying back after the Olympics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was a hard week,\u201d Poulin said. \u201cEmotionally, it hasn\u2019t necessarily been easy. The chance we have to come back to our PWHL teams, the chance to be surrounded with outstanding people, by our friends, our teammates, it puts things into perspective.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cYou learn how much you love it. To come back here, it reminds you why you do it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Victoire came back to a group of 13 players who had been practising over the Olympic break, and prepared themselves to come out strong. The Victoire have outscored opponents 8-1 in their two games since the Olympics.<\/p>\n
\u201cTo surround yourself with amazing people once you get back, I think that\u2019s the best part,\u201d Stacey said. \u201cWe have an incredible team that we could jump right into and surround ourselves with, and that\u2019s exactly why I did it in 2018 because I needed to be around good people. I needed to be around people that could help lift me up too and this is no different.\u201d<\/p>\n
DESBIENS\u2019 STRONG RUN<\/p>\n
Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens only had to make 17 saves for her fourth shutout of the season, but it extended a pretty remarkable run she has been on this season. Last year\u2019s PWHL goaltender of the year now has an 11-4 record this season, with a 1.06 goals-against average and .958 save percentage. She leads all starting goaltenders in each of those categories.<\/p>\n
She has not allowed more than two goals in a game this season.<\/p>\n
TEAM USA WOMEN SHINE ON SNL<\/p>\n
After watching her Team USA teammates Megan Keller and Hilary Knight on Saturday Night Live, Victoire forward Hayley Scamurra gave a rave review.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was so stoked to see them do that,\u201d she said. The two American women were flanked by host Connor Storrie and Jack and Quinn Hughes in the show\u2019s monologue, and Knight opened by saying that it was only going to be them, but they decided to invite the men, referencing the post-game controversy from the men\u2019s locker room.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey did such an incredible job and I think put that all to rest, just staying focused on our success and what we accomplished. It was really funny.\u201d<\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 1, 2026.<\/p>\n
Jared Book, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAVAL \u2014 After suffering the disappointment of losing in the gold-medal game of the Olympics just over a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":508782,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338,82],"class_list":["post-508781","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508781","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=508781"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/508781\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/508782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=508781"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=508781"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=508781"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}