{"id":685243,"date":"2026-05-22T00:16:20","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:16:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685243\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T00:16:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T00:16:20","slug":"montreal-victoire-make-their-homecoming-after-winning-walter-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/685243\/","title":{"rendered":"Montreal Victoire make their homecoming after winning Walter Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Montreal Victoire’s Marie-Philip Poulin hoists the Walter Cup after arriving in Montreal on Thursday after winning the franchise’s first championship Wednesday night.Christopher Katsarov\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

The victorious Montreal Victoire lifted the Walter Cup on home soil Thursday morning after winning the trophy for the first time in the team\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

The Victoire defeated the Charge 4-0 in Ottawa on Wednesday night to take the best-of-five Professional Women\u2019s Hockey League final in four games, making them the first Canadian team to win the Cup. <\/p>\n

Forward Alexandra Labelle said it was the \u201ccherry on top\u201d to win with a shutout. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s amazing and we\u2019re champions,\u201d she said. \u201cLast night was pretty fun \u2026 we drank from the Cup.\u201d <\/p>\n

A group of fans welcomed the team as they stepped off the bus in front of the Verdun Auditorium, where they played their first home games when the league was founded in 2023.<\/p>\n

Fans clapped and cheered, \u201cLet\u2019s go Victoire!\u201d to welcome the players donning caps and T-shirts with their team logo.<\/p>\n

The players, still on cloud nine, couldn\u2019t help but join in on the crowd\u2019s chants of \u201cOl\u00e9! Ol\u00e9! Ol\u00e9!\u201d as they huddled around team captain Marie-Philip Poulin, who carried the silver trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pretty heavy,\u201d Poulin told reporters. \u201cIt\u2019s been surreal \u2026 I\u2019m so excited to come back home, see our fans, our friends and our families. Having done that with such incredible teammates, there\u2019s nothing better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goalie Ann-Ren\u00e9e Desbiens, affectionately nicknamed \u201cle mur\u201d (\u201cthe wall\u201d in French), said she barely slept after a night of celebrations. <\/p>\n

She said the team had dreamt of winning the Cup at home but were pleased that Montreal fans made the trek to Ottawa to cheer them on and watch them clinch the trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo see, to meet more fans today, to share a moment with them is truly special. This league doesn\u2019t exist without our fans and the media, so we\u2019re quite happy to share this,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

A group of high schoolgirls stopped by on their lunch break to catch a glimpse of the victorious team and congratulate their idols in the flesh.<\/p>\n

Poulin, who was named the post-season MVP after putting up eight points (two goals, six assists) in nine playoff games, said it\u2019s \u201cincredible\u201d to see the impact she and her teammates have had on young girls. <\/p>\n

\u201cGiving them something to dream about, it\u2019s something that motivates us every day,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She added that players like Olympic gold medallists Kim St-Pierre and Caroline Ouellette \u2014 who coaches the Victoire \u2014 paved the way for them.<\/p>\n

Poulin said she had her \u201cups and downs\u201d this season \u2014 including a knee injury during the Milan-Cortina Olympic Games in February \u2014 but her teammates got her through the lows. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you head to the arena with teammates like these girls, who lift you up day after day during the toughest moments, it\u2019s easy to bounce back. When you put on that jersey, it\u2019s more than just us \u2014 it\u2019s the whole city, the fans, family and friends who\u2019ve been there from the start,\u201d said the team captain. <\/p>\n

The Victoire say they plan to celebrate their title and rest before the 2026-27 season starts up. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Montreal Victoire’s Marie-Philip Poulin hoists the Walter Cup after arriving in Montreal on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":685244,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,2338,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-685243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-montreal","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685243","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=685243"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/685243\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/685244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=685243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=685243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=685243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}