Montreal Stars Split Final Two Regular Season Games vs Boston

Jessica Desjardins

The Montreal Stars finished their regular season Canadian Women’s Hockey League schedule yesterday with a 5-1 loss over the Boston Blades. On Saturday, the Stars beat the Blades in the first half of the weekend doubleheader with a 4-2 win.

Saturday’s game was played in front of a sold-out crowd who took in the Stars fundraiser for breast cancer research. The arena featured pink posters with a sticker added that said ‘Fight Like a Girl’ and the Stars wore pink jerseys that were later put up for auction.

Caroline Ouellette scored in her return to the team and Emmanuelle Blais had a goal and two assists. Catherine Herron made 20 saves. US Olympian Hilary Knight scored for the Blades in the losing effort. The Stars scored four straight goals to open a 4-0 lead before Boston scored two in the third period.

On Sunday, the Stars lost their first home game of the season, falling behind 4-0 before finally falling 5-1. Herron was pulled after the fourth goal but most of the goals were not her fault. She also made several saves on breakaways and other scoring chances and the score, in all honesty, could have been worse than it was.

Olympians Ouellette and Knight both scored in the second game of the double header as well. Both were in the three star selections after the game. The first star, however, was Boston co-captain Jessica Koizumi who had a goal and assist and was a plus-3 in the game.

Julie Chu, an American Olympian who plays for Montreal, also played in the two games and was held pointless. Chu, who played forward for the Americans in Sochi and was the flag bearer at the Closing Ceremonies, played defence in the two games for the Stars. She did show a lot of her offensive ability, however, with several exciting end-to-end rushes.

The Stars finished in first place in the CWHL over the regular season and now focus on the Clarkson Cup to be held in Markham, ON from March 19-22. The format of the Clarkson Cup is the four top teams play in a three-game round robin (one game against each team) with the two best teams in the championship.

It means the winners play four games in four days. All games will be webcast on CWHL.ca with the exception of the championship game which will be aired on TSN.