Minnesota Whitecaps 4 – Montreal Stars 3 (OT)
March 19, 2009
Kingston, ON

The inaugural game of the Canadian Women's National Hockey Championships was won by the WWHL's Minnesota Whitecaps 4-3 over the CWHL's Montreal Stars in overtime. The game featured a matchup between each league's top ranked team for the coveted 1st place ranking going into tomorrow's semi final game as they vye for the Clarkson Cup.

The shots were relatively even; however, Minnesota's clearly had much better scoring opportunities early taking advantage of Montreal's collapsing defense. Kim St-Pierre, a member of Canada's National Team, made numerous big saves, however, did not receive much help as US National Team member and the Whitecaps captain, Winny Brodt was the catalyst on Minnesota's first two goals. She out waited St-Pierre on the first and made the most of the open net. She then successfully stymied St-Pierre on a three on one causing the Stars goaltender to go down and then easily dished the puck off to long time US National Team member Angela Ruggerio who made no mistake of the wide open net. Brooke White potted the Whitecaps third goal as she squeezed it through the legs of St-Pierre early in the third period.

Minnesota received solid goaltending from former Canadian National team member and hockey legend Manon Rheaume. Rheaume returns to National level play never having missed a beat. She made the saves when her team needed her and seemed to have the upper hand on her former Montreal teammates until Marie-Philippe Poulin finally scored on a nifty backhand five minutes into the third period. This gave the stars some life as Caroline Ouellette was then able to bang home an errant deflection with ten minutes to go in the period.

The stars got some huge saves from St-Pierre while killing off a penalty with just under five minutes to play, however, despite great pressure where not able to beat Manon Rheaume who calmly corralled every puck thrown her way to keep the score 3 to 2. The last big challenge for the White Caps came in the final minute when Minnesota was called for too-many men on the ice. The Stars pulled their goaltender and with just under forty seconds left to play, forward Sabrina Harbec managed to push the puck under a screened Rheaume forcing overtime.

After a very exciting game, with only 3:34 to play in the third despite chances in both ends, Minnesota was able to salvage the victory with a goal by Jessica Koizumi off a two on one rush, ringing the puck off the far post past a sprawling St-Pierre earning themselves the top seed going into tomorrow's semi-finals.

Noemie Marin of the Stars and Winny Brodt of the White Caps both earned player of the game honors for their respective teams. The event continues today with a game featuring local superstar Jayna Hefford and her Brampton Canadette-Thunder as they take on the WWHL's Calgary Oval X-Treme at 7:00pm at Kingston's K-Rock Centre.