Montreal's Laura Stacey had the first hat trick in PWHL postseason history on Saturday, but Jincy Roese scored 4:30 into overtime and the Minnesota Frost beat the Victoire 5-4 in the opener of the best-of-five semifinal.
The two-time defending champion Frost scored five times against Ann-Renée Desbiens — the league's stingiest goaltender, who led with a 1.11 goals-against average and a 0.955 save percentage.
Minnesota's Britta Curl-Salemme was hit with a 5-minute major penalty and ejected for misconduct with 47 seconds left in the second period. The 26-year-old forward had 29 points during the regular season — third most in the league — and could be suspended for Game 2 for the ejection. The Victoire's Catherine Dubois received 2 minutes for roughing as tempers flared.
Roese played just six matches for Minnesota after coming over from the New York Sirens where she totaled six assists in 22 outings. Kelly Pannek notched her second assist and Grace Zumwinkle her first on the winner.
Katy Knoll scored 8:35 into the first period to give Minnesota the lead. It was the third career postseason goal for the second-year forward after scoring a career-high seven times during the regular season.
Kendall Coyne Schofield snuck a point-blank shot past Desbiens on a power play with 3:44 remaining and the Frost took a 2-0 lead into the second period. It was Coyne Schofield's fourth postseason goal. Montreal had previously killed 34 of 35 power plays at home this season.
Montreal cut it to 2-1 just 2:46 into the second on a goal by Shiann Darkangelo. It was the second postseason score for Darkangelo.
Stacey scored with 2:11 left to knot the score, but the tie lasted 46 seconds after Zumwinkle turned a turnover into her second postseason goal to give the Frost a 3-2 lead heading to the final period.
Stacey scored with 1:10 remaining on what turned out to be a 3-minute power play to tie it 3-3 early in the third.
Minnesota took a 4-3 lead 50 seconds later on a short-handed goal by Sidney Morin. Pannek picked up her first assist of the match on the score. Morin's first playoff goal comes after not scoring during the regular season.
Stacey finished off her hat trick with another power-play goal one minute later to knot the score at 4-all. Abby Roque and Marie-Philip Poulin both picked up their second assists.
Maddie Rooney had 29 saves for Minnesota, including two in OT.
Desbiens saved 25 shots for Montreal, who chose to play Minnesota in the first round after earning that option as the top seed.
The Victoire host Game 2 Tuesday.
