Abbey Levy comes up big in goal as PWHL New York beats Montreal in shootout
PWHL goaltender Abbey Levy celebrates with her teammates after defeating Montreal in a shootout at UBS Arena on Wednesday. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Abbey Levy could not contain her smile.
Why would she?
The lifelong Islanders fan from Nyack had backstopped PWHL New York to a 3-2 shootout win over PHWL Montreal at UBS Arena Wednesday night. In doing so, she got her first win of the season in goal and her team won on home ice for the first time.
And she knew exactly who to credit.
“I swear my parents were manifesting it the whole time,” Levy said. “They were waiting for it to be here.”
She had a little something to do with it, too. Levy made 21 saves in regulation and overtime, and stopped all four Montreal shooters in the one-one-one to help New York improve to 2-4-1-4 with its third straight win.
Alex Carpenter scored both of New York’s goals in regulation, and Carpenter and Abby Roque scored in the shootout.
“It was a win we needed,” New York coach Howie Draper said.
The fact that it did not come easy made it all the more satisfying. New York led 2-0 at the first intermission due to Carpenter and Levy.
Carpenter gave New York a 1-0 lead with a power-play goal just 2:42 into the game, beating Ann-Renee Desbiens from the left faceoff dot for her seventh of the season.
The nascent league’s second-leading goal scorer increased the lead to 2-0 with a shorthanded marker with 1:13 left in the period. The sequence began with Roque breaking in on Desbiens, but her backhand attempt was stopped. Roque recovered the puck behind the net, took a stride and found Carpenter for a one-timer from the right circle.
“It’s about everybody pushing me to be better,” said Carpenter, when asked about her strong start to the season.
Montreal (4-3-2-3), the league’s second-best team, spent much of the second period encamped in the New York defensive zone. Which paid off when Laura Stacey scored a power-play goal with 3:56 remaining.
It appeared that Stacey had tied the game 2-2 7:29 into the third when Marie-Philip Poulin’s shot deflected off of her and through Levy, but following a lengthy video review, the goal was disallowed for incidental contact with the goaltender.
But 1:28 later, Montreal tied the game on Mauren Murphy’s second of the season. Much like Artemi Panarin’s overtime game-winning goal in Sunday’s Stadium Series game, the puck crossed the line as the goal was knocked off its moorings.
“It all [turned] the right way,” Levy said. “The way it was supposed to turn out so I can’t be mad about it.”
