Fans remind Montreal Victoire 'you picked us' with Ottawa Charge poised to deliver KO blow
The two-part question was put to the stars of the night after the Ottawa Charge had just moved to within one victory of playing for the PWHL championship.
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As nice as Montreal is in the spring, how much do you not want to go there this weekend?
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And how important is it not to let the Victoire bring the series back home?
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'Yeah, I'll take this one,' Gywenth Philips, who had handled everything else thrown at her that night, said with a glance at Mannon McMahon beside her in the packed TD Place interview room. 'Obviously, the games have been really close and I think after the long (4OT) game the other day and a gritty game today, that little extra bump from our fans cheering for us is really critical in these games. We're in a good position to close out, when we can, on home ice with the help of our fans.
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'So we're not looking to go back to Montreal.'
As much as the Charge likes to boast about having the best crowd support in the league, it didn't exactly translate into results this season.
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Ottawa had the league's second-worst home record and second-best road mark.
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But just as teams have to raise their level in the playoffs, so do fans.
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And such was the case with the 7,282 customers witnessing the first PWHL playoff game in the nation's capital as the Charge grabbed command of the best-of-five semifinal.
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After McMahon scored the night's only goal near the midway mark of the third period, the fans serenaded the visitors with repeated chants of 'you picked us' — a reminder that, as first-place finishers, Montreal chose the third-place Charge rather than the fourth-place Minnesota Frost as its opening-round opponent.
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'Is that what they were saying?' McMahon said, breaking out in laughter. 'That's awesome.'
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The thing is, this series could still go either way.
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The two teams are about as evenly matched as it gets.
Of their nine meetings this year, seven have been decided by one goal.
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Montreal has outscored Ottawa 20-19 because during a 4-1 home ice victory on Jan. 29, captain Marie-Philip Poulin beat Philips three times.
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Philips and the Charge learned from the lesson, as they've done a good job on The GOAT since then.
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In the two regular-season games against Ottawa that followed her outburst, Poulin had no points and just three shots on goal.
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When the Charge opened this series with a 3-2 victory, Poulin scored once, on the power play, despite testing Philips a total of eight times. She had another 0-for-8 shots in the Game 2 marathon and was unable to get one past the Ottawa rookie puckstopper with seven attempts Tuesday.
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