Darkangelo's winner helps Charge upset Victoire in Game 1 of PWHL semifinal
Shiann Darkangelo scored the winner at 9:17 of the third period to lift the Ottawa Charge past the Montreal Victoire 3-2 on the road in Game 1 of their best-of-five semifinal series Thursday.
Brianne Jenner and Ashton Bell also scored for Ottawa, while Gwyneth Philips stopped 31 shots.
The Victoire (12-7-3-8) finished first in the PWHL regular-season standings, earning the right to select third-place Ottawa (12-2-4-12) over the fourth-place Minnesota Frost as their opponent.
Marie-Philip Poulin and Maureen Murphy replied for Montreal, which lost three-straight overtime games to Boston in last year's opening round.
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Charge defeat Victoire in their PWHL playoff debut
Ann-Renee Desbiens made 24 saves before 6,570 towel-waving fans at Place Bell.
Thursday's game marked the first PWHL playoff game between two Canadian teams.
Darkangelo took a pass from Emily Clark and beat Desbiens with a wrist shot from the top right circle to give Ottawa the 3-2 lead.
The crowd nearly erupted when Poulin appeared to pounce on a breakaway with 1:56 remaining, but the play was whistled down for offside.
The Charge made their first playoff appearance after Katerina Mrazova's overtime goal against Toronto on the regular season's final day clinched a spot.
Jenner opened the scoring with a power-play goal 4:54 into the game after defender Kati Tabin chipped the puck over the glass for a delay-of-game penalty. Former Montreal forward Tereza Vanisova found Jenner alone at the side of the net.
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Pressure is on for Montreal Victoire as PWHL playoffs kick off
Three of four Victoire players were forward