Stacey Lifts Montréal over Seattle and into Three-Way Tie for First
PWHL Montreal Victoire

Stacey Lifts Montréal over Seattle and into Three-Way Tie for First

Published on March 20, 2026 under Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL)
Montreal Victoire News Release


LAVAL, QC - Laura Stacey contributed on a trio of goals to lead the Montréal Victoire to a 4-1 win over the Seattle Torrent Thursday night before a crowd of 10,033 at Place Bell. The win moves the Victoire into a three-way tie for first place with Boston and Minnesota in the PWHL standings, each with 39 points in 20 games. After a scoreless first period with chances for both teams, Catherine Dubois got the Victoire on the board with her first goal of the season at 4:17 of the second period when she tapped the puck in off a wraparound attempt from Stacey. Montréal doubled their lead to 2-0 just over nine minutes later on a highlight-reel shorthanded "jailbreak" goal by Stacey, where she battled the puck away from a defender and drove to the right post with a deke and shelfed a wide-angle shot top corner. Alex Carpenter cut the Victoire's lead in half at 7:56 of the third period with a backdoor shot from a Theresa Schafzahl feed, in the latter's debut with Seattle. Skylar Irving tipped the puck into the net, deflecting a Kati Tabin one-timer, for her second goal of the season at 9:00 of the final frame. Stacey finished the night off for Montréal at 19:27 with an empty-net goal, also assisted by Tabin. Ann-Renée Desbiens impressed in net with 24 saves for her 12th win, while rookie Hannah Murphy took the loss with 19 stops on 22 shots.

Seattle and Montréal return to the ice this weekend as the Torrent head to the Tsongas Center for a final matchup against Boston, and the Victoire look for their third consecutive win of the season series with Ottawa when they travel to Winnipeg for the 12th stop of the PWHL Takeover Tour™.

QUOTES ‚

Victoire Head Coach Kori Cheverie: "I thought it was a great response from our group. They're an experienced team. They've been through a lot of situations. They have a ton of games under their belt. And as much as we don't want a game to end like the last one, we thought we were able to pull quite a few positives from the game. And I think we were able to work on some of the pieces that we wanted to touch on a little bit more thoroughly, which was the five-on-six."

Montréal alternate captain Laura Stacey on the team bouncing back from a tough loss: "I think it was in all of our heads. I think we weren't satisfied. It was a pretty devastating loss for us, but we all said it's better it happens now than later in the season. We learned from it, and I think that's exactly what we did. We went back to the drawing board. We had great conversations, we studied up on our video, and we had another opportunity tonight to learn again. And I think we took a step forward. And if we continue taking those steps every single game, whether it's a little thing, [or] like a five-on-six, which is a big thing, it goes a really long way."

Seattle Head Coach Steve O'Rourke's overall thoughts on the team's performance: "I thought that for 60 minutes we competed and I liked the resilience of our group. That third period we came out and got that goal, we talked about taking it in chunks, and we got that one goal and kept pushing and pushing, and the resilience is there. We know we have members of our team that are missing that are key to us, but people just keep pushing and working shift after shift, and we've just got to keep pushing into that."

Torrent defender Mariah Keopple on returning to Montréal: "It was great, [I] even [had] some of the fans messaging me before the game that they were going to be here and things like that. I was here for two years, and they really took me in in that inaugural year, so it's really nice to be back. They kind of took a bet on me, and it was just really nice seeing everyone, seeing the girls in the line after, and it's always good to be back."

NOTABLES ‚ ‚

Montréal extended their point streak to eight straight games (5-2-1-0) since Jan. 21 to set a new team record and tied Boston (Jan. 7 to Mar. 10) for the longest point streak of the season.

The Victoire became the first team in PWHL history to record 10 regulation victories in each of the league's three seasons (12 in 2024-25, 10 in 2024).

This is the latest the PWHL standings have ever seen a three-way tie for first place in a season. During the inaugural season, Montréal, Toronto and Minnesota shared first place with 30 points between games played on Mar. 13 and Mar. 16, 2024.

Seattle suffered a seventh consecutive road loss since Jan. 7. In both 2024-25 and the inaugural season, the league record for winless streaks on the road was five.

The Victoire have at least three goals in seven straight games and are one away from matching Toronto (2024-25) for the longest streak in league history.

The Torrent have allowed multiple goals in all but one of its 14 games since a 2-1 home win over Montréal on Dec. 23.

Tonight was just the fifth time this season Montréal has been outshot by their opponent, fewest in the PWHL. Seattle has outshot opponents in nine of their 20 games.

Laura Stacey recorded her first three-point performance of the season and has seven points (3G, 4A) in five games since representing Canada at the Olympics, representing nearly half of her 15 points in 20 games. The Victoire alternate captain has scored both of Montréal's shorthanded "jailbreak" goals this season and leads the league in the category with two, and her game-high five shots on goal brought her league-high total to 90.

Catherine Dubois recorded her first goal and point of the season in her 14th game, ending a 13-game pointless drought in 2025-26 after a career-high nine points (6G, 3A) in 24 games in 2024-25. The Québec native recorded a season-high 15:40 time on ice today.

Stacey and Abby Roque's assists on Dubois' goal marked their 10th of the season, becoming two of seven players in PWHL history to reach double-digit helpers in consecutive seasons.

Roque has five points in her last two games (1G, 4A), representing the second time this season she has consecutive multi-point outings. Her 17 points in 19 games ties her career high as a member of the Sirens last season where she had the exact same stat line in 30 games (6G, 11A).

Skylar Irving notched her second goal in Montréal's last four games after going the first 13 games of her PWHL career without a marker. The rookie previously scored her first career goal in the Victoire's 4-1 win in New York on Feb. 26.

Kati Tabin recorded the first multi-assist game of her career and set a new career high for points in a season with nine (2G, 7A) in 20 games. She became the 15th defender in PWHL history to reach at least 15 career assists and has points in consecutive games after scoring on Sunday.

Alex Carpenter scored her team leading eighth goal and has two of her team's three goals against the Victoire this season, reaching double-digit career points against Montréal in her 11th game (6G, 4A). The Torrent alternate captain won a career-high 23 faceoffs on a season-high 31 attempts.

Theresa Schafzahl recorded an assist in her Torrent debut after being acquired in a trade with the Fleet for Jessie Eldridge on Monday. The third-year forward set a new career-high with her seventh point in 20 games (2G, 5A), surpassing her six points in 20 games during the inaugural season (3G, 3A).

Danielle Serdachny tallied her fourth point in six games since the Olympic break (1G, 3A), half of her total for the season (3G, 5A). The Seattle forward matched her output from her rookie season in Ottawa with her eighth point in 10 fewer games.

Ann-Renée Desbiens recorded her 12th win of the season and her 11th outing allowing one or fewer goals. She remains atop the goaltender leaderboard with a 1.23 goals-against-average and a .951 save percentage.

Hannah Murphy has allowed multiple goals in six of her 10 starts this season, while the 22 shots against tonight were the fewest she's faced in a game this season. The Torrent rookie has seven-straight losses after starting her season with three consecutive wins.

Montréal rookie defender Nicole Gosling and Seattle veteran forward Julia Gosling, cousins from London, ON, went head-to-head for the second time in their PWHL careers and first time on Canadian ice.

Three of Seattle's seven defenders returned to Place Bell for the first time as members of the visiting team. Mariah Keopple spent two seasons with the Victoire, while Cayla Barnes and Anna Wilgren spent their rookie seasons in Montréal.

Marie-Philip Poulin was not in the Victoire lineup for the second time this season due to a lower-body injury.

Mikyla Grant-Mentis was left off the Torrent lineup for a second consecutive game with an upper-body injury. ‚

THREE STARS ‚

1. ‚ Laura Stacey (MTL) 2G, 1A

2. ‚ Catherine Dubois (MTL) 1G

3. ‚ ‚ Ann-Renée Desbiens (MTL) 24/25 SV

STANDINGS ‚

Montréal: ‚ 39 ‚ PTS (10-4-1-5) - ‚ 3rd ‚ Place

Seattle: ‚ 19 ‚ PTS (5-1-2-12) - ‚ 8th ‚ Place ‚

UPCOMING SCHEDULES ‚

Seattle: Saturday, March 21 at Boston at 4 p.m. ET / 1 p.m. PT

Montréal: Sunday, March 22 at Ottawa at 7 p.m. ET

Share: Facebook | Twitter/X | LinkedIn | Reddit | Email



Professional Women's Hockey League Stories from March 20, 2026


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

OurSports Central