The Brampton Thunder visited Montreal this weekend to take on Marie Philip Poulin and company.

Saturday, Feb. 6 (5-4 SO loss)

It is such a shame that this game wasn't streamed because it was incredible.

"I think we always build ourselves up to play them and they're number one in the league," said forward Jamie Lee Rattray about playing Les Canadiennes. "It's always a high tempo game and great crowd and it's always a fun game. I know they play hard, we play hard, and it always makes for a good battle, so it was a lot of fun."

Brampton really did come to play this weekend. Both games were incredibly physical. There was so much back and forth action. Leads were taken and then lost and then retaken. Beautiful goals were scored by both teams. It had a great 'hometown kid does good, comes home' story with Charline Labonte, too (I'll ignore the fact that Broisbriand is to Montreal what Markham is to Toronto because I eat these narratives up. They even had a banner welcoming her home right behind the visitor's net).

"Great game, could have gone either way," said Coach Tyler Fines after the game. "That's a good hockey team in there. When you give them those chances, they're going to bury them. They're a great hockey team, well coached. Just didn't bounce our way."

Brampton did give Les Canadiennes a lot of chances in this one. They got into some penalty trouble early on, taking two quick penalties and giving Montreal some of the first chances of the game. The PK looked pretty good on both the 5-on-4 and the 5-on-3. They did a good job of limiting chances.

Despite the early penalties, Brampton got on the board first in this one. Rebecca Vint picked off a breakout pass at the blue line, streaked in on Labonte, and roofed it.

Sarah Edney scored in the first minute of the second period to put Brampton up 2-0. After that, Leslie Oles and Rebecca Vint traded penalties. Brampton's PP first unit is really good and got great chances all weekend. The second unit...well, there were a lot of rushes and shorthanded goals given up. Poulin ended up scoring on the power play after picking up a failed clearing attempt and firing it past Erica Howe.

Brampton retook their two goal lead soon after, though. Courtney Birchard and Laura Fortino (both defenders, by the way) ended up starting a rush while shorthanded and really nice give-and-go for a goal. The celebration was great, too. Fortino jumped on Birchard and both ended up falling to the ice.

Ann-Sophie Bettez ended up scoring later on the same powerplay, though, to cut the lead in half. It was 3-2 after two periods.

Montreal really started pressing in the third. Brampton took a couple more penalties that nearly cost them (the puck slid right through the crease on one play) but managed to keep their lead until five minutes left in the period. Bettez stole the puck from Birchard in Brampton's zone and passed it off to Poulin in the slot, who fired a perfectly placed shot over Howe's glove.

Brampton didn't go down without a fight, though. Rebecca King scored shortly after that to regain the lead. With less than two minutes left, Bettez took an interference penalty and it looked like Brampton would win a big two points. Alas, it was not meant to be. Captain Cathy Chartrand scored with 28 seconds left to play and the goalie pulled.

Brampton had some great chances in overtime (Montreal didn't even register a shot) but Labonte stopped everything. Another exciting game ruined by a coin toss shootout. Poulin slipped one past Howe, enough for Montreal to complete the comeback.

It's a tough way to lose. The shot totals in the third period were incredibly lopsided (more on that at the bottom, though) in Montreal's favour--giving up a lot of shots in the third probably isn't the best way to hang onto a lead.

Rebecca Vint, the second star of the game, said that the team "got caught puck watching a lot and that really--they capitalized on the few times that we did puck watch. I think we were trying to be too pretty and that also affected our scoring; not that it was a low scoring game but we could have had more, they could have had more."

Saturday, Feb. 7 (5-2 loss)

This one was a little less close. Montreal dominated play for a large chunk of the game, especially during the second. Brampton did manage to keep the score close until the third, though. Liz Knox got injured halfway through the first period which can't have helped things, either.

The first goal of the game came on the PK. Poulin rifled a slap shot from the point past Howe. Vint (who has really been heating up as of late) evened up the score just 10 seconds later.

Lauriane Rougeu gave Montreal the lead late in the second on another slapshot from the point. The go-ahead goal seemed inevitable for much of the second period--Montreal was really controlling play for most of it.

Brampton managed to get more going in the third but Caroline Ouellette added to Montreal's lead early while Brampton was on the PK. Vint responded with a shorthanded goal a couple minutes later, making it 3-2. That would be it for the potential comeback, though. Poulin received a great pass from Bettez and fired it past Howe with less than three minutes left to play. Then, Bettez added an empty netter to ice it for Montreal.

That makes it two tough losses in as many games for Brampton. Their inability to hold onto multiple leads on Saturday really sunk them. The penalties didn't help, either.

"I thought our team battled. We had a long bus trip here, bus legs and we had a great first game. Second game, same thing. We just fell short," said Birchard after the game. "You know, it's tough coming here. It seems like the refs really have it out for us and sitting in the box isn't going to help us win games."

Brampton will play Toronto on Valentines Day before hosting Calgary in their final regular season match-up. They're going to need some help from Montreal (who play the second place Inferno) this weekend if they want a shot at home ice.

Notes

  • I was sitting right behind the Brampton bench on Saturday (the rink was tiny). Tyler Fines is extremely loud. He also wasn't very pleased with the calls on Saturday.
  • Poulin went down to block shots a bunch of times, including putting herself in front of multiple Birchard slapshots. My heart stopped a bit every time. Do not want.
  • Courtney Birchard is so, so good. She's such a great skater and had a number of incredible end-to-end rushes this weekend.
  • Rattray went down hard in the middle of Saturday's game and was holding her knee afterwards. She was in pain on the bench for a while but ended up coming back into the game.
  • I'm really starting to doubt the league's shot tracking. There is no way that half of Brampton's shots on Sunday came in the second period (their worst period. They didn't have the puck much at all during the second). The shot numbers felt off for Saturday's game, too.
  • Brampton's first line was held off the scoresheet this weekend. It wasn't for lack of trying, though. Rattray and Jones looked dangerous and had a lot of great chances. They did, however, get hemmed in their zone a fair amount. They had a tough assignment (they spent a lot of time out against one of either Poulin or Ouellette) but they can play better defensively.
  • Things got chippy out there. Karell Emard took over the PIMs race after receiving a 10 minute misconduct for checking Kristen Richards into the boards from behind. After the game, Bettez said that Brampton plays physical because they can't keep up with Montreal's speed. Shots fired.
  • The press box in Brossard (where the Habs practice) is really nice. Great change of pace from having to stand at the top of the stairs at Les Canadiennes' usual rink.
  • Going to be a total homer here and say that I would really like for Brampton to get home ice so that I can finally cover them at home./
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