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Calgary Flames

Inferno can’t sustain the heat, fall to Les Canadiennes

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After a come-from-behind victory of sorts, all eyes were on the Calgary Inferno to repeat their success against Les Canadiennes de Montreal.

That… didn't happen.

Instead, the power play sputtered, the penalty kill allowed two goals, and Marie-Philip Poulin scored a hat trick on Delayne Brian as Montreal rolled to a 5-0 win at Winsport's Joan Snyder Rink.

There had been talk the night before of this weekend potentially being a split, and Les Canadiennes made sure of it, taking advantage of Calgary's penalties while stifling the offense on their own chances on the skater advantage.

Although the game looked to be tightly played in terms of offense (Charline Labonte stopped all 23 shots; Brian faced 25 and saved 21), the real key for Calgary seemed to be failing to contain Montreal's best players, including Poulin, who now has 11 points in just four games played. Julie Chu, who played well on Saturday, had another strong game, scoring a goal of her own and standing up opponents beautifully in her own end. As for the netminder, Labonte continued her stellar play, handling a flurry of penalties in the second and third periods to preserve her shutout.

Kim Deschenes rounding out the scoring with an empty-net goal with 30 seconds left in the game.

Although this loss takes some of the wind out of Calgary's sails, the Inferno are still tied for first place with, once again, an identical record to Montreal's (5-1-0). They travel to Toronto next week to take on the Furies, who were off this weekend but are currently in fourth place with a 1-4-1 record (their only win in regulation came against Boston Oct. 17).

Game time is set for 5:30 p.m. MST (7:30 EST) Saturday and 11 a.m. MST (1 p.m. EST) Sunday at Mastercard Centre. Fans can catch the Saturday game via live streaming by purchasing a CWHL Live account for $19.95 CAD (about $16 USD).

by Angelica Rodriguez