Grant-Mentis scores winner as Victoire edge Charge 2-1

The Victoire were victorious over the Ottawa Charge on Friday night with a 2-1 win at the Canadian Tire Centre in Ottawa.

Mikyla Grant-Mentis played a handful of games for Ottawa's Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL) team last season before being released.

On Friday she came back to haunt her old team with the winning goal in a Montreal Victoire uniform.

"It felt great. Every time I play Ottawa I have a little bit of oomph in me, but it was nice to get a goal this time," Grant-Mentis said, before responding to a question of whether she had any bad feelings toward Ottawa.

"I love all the girls."

Victoire captain Marie-Philip Poulin also scored for the visitors, who got a 29-save performance from Elaine Chuli. The lone goal for the Charge came off the stick of Ashton Bell. Emerance Maschmeyer made 29 saves in a losing effort.

Trailing 2-1, the Charge pulled Maschmeyer with over two minutes to play and with under a minute left Savannah Harmon just missed tying the game as her shot deflected off Chuli before going off the crossbar.

"I felt very confident every time the puck was around our crease. She [Chuli] kept things calm out there and obviously the cherry on top was the save at the end. That's why I believe we have the top goaltending in the league" Victoire coach Kori Cheverie said.

It was the first game the Charge played at the Canadian Tire Centre, home of the Ottawa Senators, and they drew a team record 11,065 fans.

That, however, didn't seem to lift the Charge according to coach Carla MacLeod.

"We came out a little bit flat. We got on our heels for the first couple of periods, to be honest, and we just didn't have enough jam in our game," MacLeod said.

"We were responding to Montreal and not sort of dictating.