https://twitter.com/PWHPA/status/1399137083541889027?s=20
Yesterday’s game winner from Poulin. Great play throughout by Montreal on this. Starts with whoever gets the puck in the neutral zone and finds Poulin on the blue line. Poulin is a bit like Crosby, can’t seem to give her a bad pass.
As soon as Poulin fed Saulnier coming through with speed I thought it was game over, as Saulnier and Eldridge went in 2 on 1. Saulnier on her off wing brings the puck to her forehand and passes to Eldridge. A diving Howard (I think) can’t get to Eldridge who one times it, Tiley with the save. Eldridge collected her own rebound from the corner, Rattray is pressuring her. Jenner and a D are both with Saulnier in front of the net while Poulin glides in undefended and one times a feed from Eldridge into the back. Beautiful goal. That 2 minute rest in the penalty box was probably a gift to her.
Poulin led the tourney in pts with 11, tied for first in goals with Potomak with 5. Eldridge second in points with 7.
As an aside,
Saulnier, described as an energy player by Ouellette, had some great passes off of odd person rushes this tourney. Earlier in the tourneyshe had one coming down her strong side, her the D and her teammate all bunched up. Saulnier did a little snow plow thing to create some space, get the puck across to her teammate, shot, rebound and Inthink O’Neill then banged it in. Fun to watch.
Turnbull and Johnston were in some ways the most fun duo to watch this tourney. Calgary had a big challenge in terms of roster depth and lack of practice time. They had one bad game, and also ran out of gas last 7 mins their first game. But they never quit and that last game got a very hard fought win. Johnson and Turnbull led the way and played so unselfishly with each other. Wonder if they are an option together in future Canada games. I’ve been critical of Johnson because for the amount of minutes she gets I don’t think she produces enough against the US, but she was awesome this tourney and I hope that carries to Worlds.
Gabel and Spooner were another duo that played together. Gabel was almost treated like a 7th forward on this roster when it came to pp, and last minute of the game scenarios. So, she has her work cut out for her. She played fine this tourney, Goal and assist, but I would have liked to see her and Spooner trust each other a little more, and work off of each other, rather than just rush down the ice and try to snipe top shelf, which they did numerous times. Almost like there was competition between them.
This was an amazing tourney - not enough time to do justice to all the goodness in it. Last word for now has to go to Sam Isbell who played for Montreal. They played her at D, they played her at forward, mixed up the lines and centers etc. She appeared to roll with all of it, always had good body language on the bench etc. she got better throughout the tourney and yesterday was her best game. Huge shift halfway through the 2nd, leading to Montreal’s 2nd goal. All the non national team players represented themselves so well throughout this tourney. When the PW started, they talked about wanting to improve opportunities for the non national team players. I hope the PW embraces that vision as they work through season 3.
, so most of the last couple of seasons that has been the Whale, though I do have a bunch of Buffalo gear now. My closest team would be the Riveters, who at one point played at Aviator is which is only a couple of miles down the road from me. Now they're all the way in NJ 