Courtney Kessel Claps Back At PWHL Montreal Coach’s Bold Statement

LOWELL, Mass. — PWHL Boston defeated PWHL Montreal 3-2 in overtime on Tuesday night to advance to the league’s inaugural Walter Cup Final.

In the PWHL’s first-ever postseason, the Boston-Montreal best-of-five series saw all three games need overtime to determine the winner.

Boston forward Susanna Tapani scored the game-winning goals in Games 1 and 3 and Taylor Wenzckowski was the hero in Game 2’s triple overtime.

Marie-Philip Poulin and Maureen Murphy scored for Montreal to give their team a 2-0 lead heading into the third period on Tuesday. Sophie Shirley and Amanda Pelkey tied the game for Boston in the third period to force overtime, where Tapani tallied her second goal of the playoffs just 62 seconds into the extra frame.

Montreal coach Kori Cheverie made a bold statement regarding the series, despite her team being eliminated.

“You obviously had a team on the other side who was pushing back,” Cheverie told reporters following Montreal’s loss. “I don’t know if they matched our push in the first two (periods) and then in the third, they decided they wanted to win in 60 (minutes), I guess, and they had that push back.

“I think out of the, how many periods that we played, 12, I would say we probably outplayed them for 10. It wasn’t quite enough.”

Despite being outshot 145-102 in the series, Boston bested Montreal 7-4 on the scoreboard, where it mattered. Boston head coach Courtney Kessel quipped at Cheverie’s assessment of the series.

“I mean, good for her,” Kessel said. “Here we are. We’re heading on to the championship. I think that’s all that matters.”

Kessel said Boston knew Montreal was going to come into Game 3 hot and the team had seen some of Cheverie’s other comments in the series.

“Kori is telling us that we’re lucky … and we celebrated too hard on the third overtime goal,” Kessel said. “So, that’s motivation for her team, and that’s understandable.

“We know they’re coming in for blood and it was like, let’s manage the first period. We knew they were coming on hot and we got out of that period thanks to our great goalie (Aerin) Frankel. Then from there, we built momentum. I felt in the third period we outplayed them.”

So did Cheverie’s comments motivate Boston?

“I think when they pulled their goalie in regulation in Game 24, that was enough motivation for us,” Kessel said.

Even though Montreal pulled Ann-Renée Desbiens in the closing moments of the final regular season matchup between the two clubs, Boston won 4-3.

With the sweep of the opening round against Montreal, Boston advances to the Walter Cup and will face the winner of the Toronto-Minnesota series.