Marie-Philip Poulin's shootout winner lifts Victoire to win over Charge

Marie-Philip Poulin scored the shootout winner for the Montreal Victoire in a 4-3 win over the Ottawa Charge in a thrilling season-opener for both teams Saturday.

The Victoire captain buried the only goal of the five-round shootout after missing a previous attempt and a breakaway late in overtime.

Jennifer Gardiner, Laura Stacey and Abigail Boreen scored in regulation for Montreal (0-1-0-0) before a crowd of 10,033 at Place Bell. Goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens stopped 29 shots.

Tereza Vanisova, Danielle Serdachny and Emily Clark scored in regulation for Ottawa (0-0-1-0), which missed the playoffs last season.

Ottawa's goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer was a hard worker with 42 saves.

Clark opened the scoring 7:49 into the first period after her open-ice hit on Victoire forward Kristin O'Neill went unpenalized.

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Serdachny, drafted second overall in this year's draft, doubled the lead 2:20 into the second with her first in the PWHL. The Edmonton forward's pass in front deflected off the skate of Montreal's Kati Tabin and into the net.

Boreen responded at 5:35 by capitalizing off a neutral-zone turnover and ripping a shot top corner to animate the home crowd. Stacey followed suit by cranking one off the crossbar and in on the power play at 11:28 to tie the game.

The Charge re-took the lead when Vanisova on a breakaway beat Desbiens for a power-play goal at 17:28.

Gardiner drew the hosts even with another power-play goal at 11:20 of the third. She scored on a pass from fellow Ohio State alum Cayla Barnes.

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Victoire: F