Fans remind Montreal Victoire ‘you picked us’ with Ottawa Charge poised to deliver KO blow

Ottawa’s Mannon McMahon chases the puck around Montreal’s net. McMahon’s third-period goal lifted the Charge to a 1-0 win over the Montreal Victoire during Game 3 of the PWHL first-round playoff series. Photo by JULIE OLIVER /PostmediaArticle content

The two-part question was put to the stars of the night after the Ottawa Charge had just moved to within one victory of playing for the PWHL championship.

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As nice as Montreal is in the spring, how much do you not want to go there this weekend?

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And how important is it not to let the Victoire bring the series back home?

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“Yeah, I’ll take this one,” Gywenth Philips, who had handled everything else thrown at her that night, said with a glance at Mannon McMahon beside her in the packed TD Place interview room. “Obviously, the games have been really close and I think after the long (4OT) game the other day and a gritty game today, that little extra bump from our fans cheering for us is really critical in these games. We’re in a good position to close out, when we can, on home ice with the help of our fans.

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“So we’re not looking to go back to Montreal.”

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As much as the Charge likes to boast about having the best crowd support in the league, it didn’t exactly translate into results this season.

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Ottawa had the league’s second-worst home record and second-best road mark.

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But just as teams have to raise their level in the playoffs, so do fans.

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And such was the case with the 7,282 customers witnessing the first PWHL playoff game in the nation’s capital as the Charge grabbed command of the best-of-five semifinal.

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After McMahon scored the night’s only goal near the midway mark of the third period, the fans serenaded the visitors with repeated chants of “you picked us” — a reminder that, as first-place finishers, Montreal chose the third-place Charge rather than the fourth-place Minnesota Frost as its opening-round opponent.

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“Is that what they were saying?” McMahon said, breaking out in laughter. “That’s awesome.”

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The thing is, this series could still go either way.

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The two teams are about as evenly matched as it gets.

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Of their nine meetings this year, seven have been decided by one goal.

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Montreal has outscored Ottawa 20-19 because during a 4-1 home ice victory on Jan. 29, captain Marie-Philip Poulin beat Philips three times.

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Philips and the Charge learned from the lesson, as they’ve done a good job on The GOAT since then.

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In the two regular-season games against Ottawa that followed her outburst, Poulin had no points and just three shots on goal.

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When the Charge opened this series with a 3-2 victory, Poulin scored once, on the power play, despite testing Philips a total of eight times. She had another 0-for-8 shots in the Game 2 marathon and was unable to get one past the Ottawa rookie puckstopper with seven attempts Tuesday.

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To save you the math, Philips has stopped 25 of 26 shots from the PWHL’s highest scorer since allowing her a hat-trick three and a half months ago.