Roque’s OT winner lifts Victoire to Game 1 win over Charge in Walter Cup final

LAVAL —

With 18 seconds remaining in regulation, the Montreal Victoire were trailing 2-1, had a neutral zone faceoff and just watched one of their leaders — forward Laura Stacey — leave the game in extreme pain with a leg injury.

Just 167 seconds of game time later, Abby Roque’s second goal of the game secured a 3-2 win for the Victoire over the Ottawa Charge in Game 1 of the Walter Cup final in the Professional Women’s Hockey League on Thursday night.

Maggie Flaherty’s shot deflected off of Stacey, who returned for overtime, before hitting Roque’s stick and going up off her face mask, and in the net. The goal came 2:29 into overtime.

“Maggie made a great play to me to try and tip it back door and somehow, face and in,” Roque said. “I’ll take it.”

Roque, whose two goals were her first career PWHL playoff goals, couldn’t remember ever scoring with her face.

“I just saw the puck go right between my eyes, and was like ‘OK,’” she said. “Then somehow it went in. I was just hoping, l was like ‘that’s a good goal, right?’”

Nicole Gosling also played hero, scoring the tying goal with 2.1 seconds remaining in regulation.

Marie-Philip Poulin threw the puck on net, and after Maureen Murphy got a stick on the loose puck in the crease, Gosling made a sprawling effort to put the puck past Philips.

“I knew that there was only like 18 seconds left when the faceoff occurred, so I was just trying to get up there,” Gosling said. “I saw the puck sitting there and took a nice little whack at it. I wasn’t sure if it was the goal horn or the buzzer.”

The goal came with the extra attacker on for Montreal, and right after Stacey left the game to go directly toward the locker room.

“Definitely a crazy sequence of events,” Roque said. “When Stace went down, I think everybody knew we wanted to put our best foot forward for her.”

Place Bell fell to a hush after Stacey fell to the ice in extreme discomfort in the corner of the offensive end. The Montreal forward collided along the boards with Ottawa’s Gabbie Hughes, where her knee took the brunt.

The fact that she returned for overtime surprised even her teammates.

“Abby and I looked up on the ice and we saw her taking a hot lap,” said Montreal goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens. “We’re like ‘well, there she is.’ She’s a fighter, she’s somebody that’s willing to do anything it takes to help her team.”

The Charge came close to sealing the game when Brianne Jenner hit the outside of the post with the empty net with less than two minutes remaining in the third period.

When asked to characterize the final few minutes, Desbiens said “resiliency.” Gosling said “character,” and then Desbiens added “and a whole lot of heart.” The Montreal goaltender made 23 saves in the win.

Montreal’s comeback overshadowed Rebecca Leslie’s two-goal performance, which gave Ottawa leads of 1-0 and 2-1, while Gwyneth Philips made 23 saves.

Leslie’s second goal of the game came with 4:04 remaining in the third period when she had the puck entering the zone and moved laterally to open the five-hole, beating Desbiens.

The Victoire finally broke through 12:12 into the third period when Nadia Mattivi took the puck down low before finding Roque whose shot from the slot beat Philips.

It was Mattivi’s first point in her first playoff game after spending the semifinal on the team’s reserve roster. She was signed to a 10-day contract on Thursday and played in six regular-season games.

Leslie opened the scoring with 3:04 remaining in the second period. After Leslie fired a shot during a 3-on-1 rush, Desbiens made the initial save but Leslie collected the puck and put home the rebound over a chaotic crease area.

The Charge, who also lost Game 1 to the Boston Fleet before winning three straight games in the semifinal, will look to rebound in Game 2 on Saturday afternoon.

“We didn’t get the outcome, we were pretty darn close there, Montreal obviously gave a good push,” said Ottawa head coach Carla MacLeod. “But really, so many elements of our game we just executed incredibly well.”

“At the end of the day, it’s a five-game series, and you just park this one and you move on to the next.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 14, 2026.

Jared Book, The Canadian Press