Desbiens, Poulin lead Victoire to 2-1 shootout win over Sceptres in Halifax
Ann-Renée Desbiens made 35 saves and Marie-Philip Poulin scored in the shootout to help the Montreal Victoire beat the Toronto Sceptres in the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s first-ever game in Halifax on Wednesday night
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia (AP) — Ann-Renée Desbiens made 35 saves and Marie-Philip Poulin scored in the shootout to help the Montreal Victoire beat the Toronto Sceptres in the Professional Women’s Hockey League’s first-ever game in Halifax on Wednesday night.
Poulin buried the lone goal in a 10-round shootout, and Desbiens stopped all five Sceptres attempts as a sold-out crowd of 10,438 inside Scotiabank Centre cheered equally for Toronto and Montreal.
Maya Labad scored in regulation for Montreal, and Anna Kjellbin scored for Toronto.
Sceptres goalie Raygan Kirk stopped 30 shots.
It marked the first of 16 neutral-site matchups — and the first of two in Halifax — this season on the PWHL’s Takeover Tour.
The league returns to the home of the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League’s Halifax Mooseheads on Jan. 11 when the Ottawa Charge face the Boston Fleet.
Kjellbin opened the scoring at 3:26 in the first period to give the Sceptres an early lead. Labad tied it up at 12:16.
Recommended for you
Toronto captain Blayre Turnbull almost scored the winner off her own rebound in the final seconds in regulation, but she was unable to put it past Desbiens.
Sceptres forward Emma Maltais appeared to win the game on a breakaway in overtime, but Toronto defender Renata Fast was called for interference on Montreal’s Jessica DiGirolamo moments before her shot crossed the goal line.
Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO
personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who
make comments. Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd,
racist or sexually-oriented language. Don't threaten. Threats of harming another
person will not be tolerated. Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone
or anything. Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on
each comment to let us know of abusive posts. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Anyone violating these rules will be issued a
warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be
revoked.
Please purchase a Premium Subscription to continue reading.
To continue, please log in, or sign up for a new account.
We offer one free story view per month. If you register for an account, you will get two additional story views. After those three total views, we ask that you support us with a subscription.
A subscription to our digital content is so much more than just access to our valuable content. It means you’re helping to support a local community institution that has, from its very start, supported the betterment of our society. Thank you very much!
(0) comments
Welcome to the discussion.
Log In
Keep the discussion civilized. Absolutely NO personal attacks or insults directed toward writers, nor others who make comments.
Keep it clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language.
Don't threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated.
Be truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything.
Be proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts.
PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK.
Anyone violating these rules will be issued a warning. After the warning, comment privileges can be revoked.