'Alarming' Night Caps Off LSHL Season With Dancing, Firefighters And An Outdoor Intermission

It was the final of the LSHL Monday night in Montreal. And things couldn’t have been more unexpected.

After the consolation final, just when all the players for the final were on the ice for their warmup, a loud ring, coming from the fire alarm, started to be heard through the whole Hockey Etcetera Sports Complex.

After several minutes, the players were asked to step out of the ice and, alongside fans and staff, were asked to leave the building. There was no fire, but smoke appeared from a short circuit in the sauna.

Staying outside would not have been that bad if it wasn’t for the rain dropping on Montreal at that time. One of the team sponsors, MTL Balance Board, had a huge delivery truck and could fit his entire team in the back of it. He then started to play some country music on his speakers and Catherine Daoust started a dance line. She was followed by many fans.

Asked about if she ever had to wait outside an arena because of a fire alarm, Marie-Philip Poulin, who had just finished playing the consolation final, said it was a first for her. Former Concordia Stinger and now PWHL Montreal and LSHL social media manager, Ariane Julien, remembered it happened once in Sweden when she was playing for HV71. Same for goalie Tricia Deguire, who remembered something like this at Bishop’s university once.

As if this evening was not weird enough, after the firemen arrived on the scene, a guy showed up in a car with a full-leopard paint job! And to add to all this, Rosalie Demers realized that one of the firemen was her uncle!

As Kiss would sing this was a “crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy night!”

Gabrielle David leads her team to the championship

Let’s go back to hockey if you will. Fifty minutes after it was supposed to start, the last match of the season finally got on its way.

And Emmy Fecteau’s Team Accent Assurance started really strong with three unanswered goals. Little did one know, it would be the only goals Fecteau’s team would score. Team MTL Paddle Board made a comeback with 11 unanswered goals to win the game 11 to 3. Team captain Gabrielle David lead all of her teammates with four goals. Concordia’s Emilie Lussier and PWHL New York Jade Downie-Landry also had a multiple-goal game.

It’s back-to-back championships for MTL Paddle Board. Goalie Alice Philbert and Gabrielle David are the only players from this year’s edition who also won last year.

The consolation final wasn’t a consolation for the fans, though, as it was perhaps the better game of the two.

Thanks to Marie-Philip Poulin’s three goals and Catherine Foulem’s pair, Team Poulet Rouge was leading 7 to 4 in the third period. And that’s when Catherine Dubois decided that it was enough and took matter into her own hands. She ended up with four goals, closing the gap to 7-6. With a few minutes left, Concordia’s Léonie Philbert tied the game.

However, Poulin and Laura Stacey weren’t going to finish last and with 36 seconds left in the period, Stacey scored the winning goal for her team. Between that, Poulin’s hat trick and Dubois’ four goals, PWHL Montreal fans were ecstatic.

The crowd was on fire by the end of the match. No pun intended, of course!