Week 2 of the women’s division of the Living Sisu Hockey League is in the books and it was an interesting one.
It was the first week with the PWHL Montreal contracted players such as Marie-Philip Poulin, Laura Stacey, and Kristin O’Neill. Plus, Amanda Boulier played her first game in the LSHL as a replacement player.
It was Poulin’s first competitive game since her team lost to Boston in the PWHL playoffs and it only took her one period to get her groove back. She scored a beauty after taking a pass from former Boston University forward Catherine Foulem. The latter will play at McGill University next season.
Poulin scored another one, but not before being stopped first by goaltender Alice Philbert. The former Concordia University netminder played in France last season, in a men’s team. The goal for her is to represent France at the 2026 Olympics women’s hockey tournament.
That said, even with Poulin’s return, it was the Jade Downie-Landry show. Playing against Captain Clutch, she was everywhere on the ice. Of the 11 goals her team scored, she was probably on the ice for eight or nine of them. She made laser focus passes and scored a few nice ones too. As a reminder, the league doesn’t compile stats this year. Her Montreal Balance Board team defeated Poulin’s Poulet Rouge 11-6.
Behind the bench for Poulet Rouge was Laurianne Rougeau, who played with PWHL Toronto last season. She injured her wrist during the last game of the season against Ottawa, still played through the playoffs, but had to get surgery after Toronto got eliminated against Minnesota. She still wears a brace, hence the reason she was behind the bench and not on the ice.
In the second game, Concordia’s Arianne Leblanc had another stellar night, allowing only five goals, two after captain Alexandra Labelle made a bold move a pulled goalie Jade Rivard-Coulombe out with three minutes left in the third period and the score being 9-3. Leblanc even stopped Kristin O’Neill on a breakaway.
At the start of the game, it didn’t look like Rivard-Coulombe would allow 10 goals. During the first 10 minutes of the first period, she was stopping anything and everything coming her way: hard shots, one-timers, and even a 2-on-0.
But the Accent team was able to find a crack and didn’t let go. Captain Emmy Fecteau could count on two lines, but especially two duos: Fecteau and fellow Concordia alumnus Rosalie Begin-Cyr, as well as U Sports player of the year, Gabrielle Santerre, with Elodie Caron. The latter, a Limoilou Titans’ alumnus, finished fourth in scoring last season in collegial D1 and helped her team win the provincial championship. She will play at Northeastern University next year.
Both duos were finding each other on the ice very easily and it profited their team. Fecteau’s Accent team won 10-5 over Labelle’s LiveBarn.
A good thing for fans in Montreal is that the league decided to cut down the ticket price to what it was last year, going from $19.90 to $13.77 ($10 plus fees and taxes). The league stated on a social media post that they have listened to feedback after the first week and although they want to raise as much money as they can for the pancreas cancer foundation, they also want as many people as possible to afford coming to a game. The result already paid off as the crowd on week 2 was much better than the one on week 1.
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