By The Canadian Press

Focus on physicality paying off for Victoire early in PWHL season

Dec 7, 2025 | 1:37 PM

LAVAL — The Montréal Victoire entered the Professional Women’s Hockey League off-season wanting to become a more physical team, and in their third game of the season — a 3-1 victory over the Toronto Sceptres — they seem to have made an impression.

Sceptres head coach Troy Ryan said that Montreal looked more physical than they had in the past, something his players picked up on.

“I just don’t know I we came out to match their physicality and their compete level,” said Toronto defender Renata Fast.

Montreal head coach Kori Cheverie said it was “mission accomplished today.”

“Every game is going to present different things, but we know that Toronto plays that style as well,” Cheverie said. “Just really happy with the physicality piece. A big push in our off-season was to get more physical players.”

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Forward Laura Stacey, who scored one of Montreal’s goals, said if the other team is talking about how tough the Victoire are to play, then they’re doing something right.

“That’s a goal of ours, for teams to come in here and feel (the physicality), and feel that we’re a tough team to play against,” Stacey said. “For them to feel it today, for them to say that, that’s huge for us. That’s something we’re really working towards.”

Captain Blayre Turnbull and Emma Maltais, key members of Toronto’s leadership group, both took big hits.

“Those tend to have some emotional side-effects to it,” Ryan said. “In those moments, you have a decision as a player of which way you’re going to respond to it. Are you going to respond with physicality or are you going to go more into your shell?

“I think, to some extent, we went more into a shell as opposed to, ‘OK, we’re in a game here, it’s going to be physical, maybe we have to dictate a little more than just being a receiver.’”

Fast said the Victoire put Toronto on its heels early in the game.

“This league is obviously allowing a lot of physicality and we want that,” Stacey said. “It’s extremely important for our team, and you can see when we are physical, when we are taking the body the right way, we’re tough to play against.”

A LONG LAYOFF, BEFORE ANOTHER LAYOFF

One of the quirks of the PWHL’s schedule early on is noticeable with the Victoire. Montreal went 11 days between their last game on November 25, and their game on Sunday, while all seven other teams played games. Now, they have another break — this one league-wide for international play — before returning to action in 10 days.

It didn’t seem to affect them too much on Sunday, as they came out strong, outshooting Toronto 12-3 in the first period and taking a 1-0 lead.

“There were a few things that we focused on in the break, so I was really happy and our coaching staff were happy to see some of those come to life so quickly,” Cheverie said.

Stacey said she is proud of the team’s response to the latest layoff.

“It’s not easy [with] our schedule right now, and we all know that. We put in a lot of work the last 10 days. We knew we had to come out, keep it simple, play hard and that’s exactly what we did.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 7, 2025.

Jared Book, The Canadian Press