Charline Labonté. Top corner. Glove side. Pucks almost never go in there. Up until the Clarkson Cup Final game on Saturday, March 7, Labonté's glove had been literally flawless through two games. In back to back shutouts for the Montreal Stars (62 saves), none of her stops were as fine as the one where she stonewalled the Calgary Inferno's Louise Warren, who was shooting glove side high into a wide open net. Labonté usually protects her glove side best--not to take anything away from her pads; she works the bottom of the net equally as well. Watching the Clarkson Cup Final and Labonté's season, it was hard to not beg the Boston Blades to get traffic in front of her. You had to think: if one's going to go in here, it's going to be a dirty one.



Especially after the Blades went down 1-0, which had been the effective end of the Calgary Inferno's season just a few days before. Just 31 seconds into the game, Montreal drove to the net on Geneviève Lacasse, and Caroline Ouellette flipped a backhander, which deflected into the net off of Ann-Sophie Bettez's stick.



With about 4 minutes left in the first period, though, the Stars' Casandra Dupuis put a puck over the glass, and after much discussion with the officials about whether it deflected, she was assigned a penalty for delay of game. Less than a minute later, Hilary Knight found herself parked next Labonté's blocker side, completely undefended. Brianna Decker shuffled the puck across the ice, and veteran defense Kacey Bellamy shot it. Knight found the rebound, and for the first time all tournament, Labonté wasn't there. The game was tied 1-1.



After Lacasse surrendered the first goal, the Blades made the game about possession. Shots in the first finished at 10-4, and while Boston started the second on the penalty kill, they prevented Montreal from getting any shots. And they did start getting traffic in front, frequently from the likes of Jessica Koizumi, Rachel Llanes, and Jillian Dempsey. Labonté also made saves on Decker and Casey Pickett in the slot. Throughout the second, she pounced to many loose pucks with tons of players piling up around her. She wasn't just sharp--despite Knight's goal, she again looked unbeatable. And after every save she made, Montreal fans in the stands were ecstatic and raucous.



The third period started tense, as most potential scoring chances were broken up by alert stick work by both teams. Then Rachel Llanes drew a hooking penalty on Stacie Tardif, as Llanes was using her speed to cycle deep around the net. Boston would take their first lead of the game on a power play goal by Brianna Decker, who took the puck along the boards and dangled with it, drawing two Montreal defenders down to the ice, and finally shot it as she reached the far circle. Her perfectly placed shot beat Labonté blocker side as she was moving right to left, going just inside the corner and out. Decker fist pumped after the goal. It's worth watching the .gif of this one on loop.



The lead was short-lived, however, and the Stars drove to the net around Lacasse at the other end, and Lacasse went down. Emmanuelle Blais got a stick on it by holding her position in front of the net, and it was 2-2. It took awhile to be put up on the board, and Knight argued with the officials about it long after they pointed to center ice to confirm a good goal. The Stars came hard again in the final minutes, as Kim Deschênes shot the puck in on Lacasse, who held it. It knocked loose and into the net after the whistle had blown and the net was knocked off by Montreal players crashing into the paint. Time ticked down, between whistles, as officials tried to keep the play moving, while both Stars and Blades found themselves in immovable puck battles along the walls.



A full intermission followed. Full, 20-minute sudden death overtimes would be played until someone scored.



OT began with a brief heart-stopper, as Lacasse let up a huge rebound to Bettez and had lost her net challenging the shot, but Tara Watchorn cleared it out of danger. Jordan Smelker came very close to scoring while on a rush with Corinne Buie--Labonté made the save, but she got some help from her post as well. A few seconds later, Montreal was pinching at their own blueline, and it led to a turnover. Buie drew two players (veterans Ouellette and Cathy Chartrand) and passed to the middle. Suddenly, there was a 2 on 1. Smelker drove the net while Janine Weber came down the right wing. She shot it, and it went in. Top corner, glove side. And so the Blades hoisted the Clarkson Cup in 2015, thanks to a shot from the stick of a rookie, from Austria, who beat a world-class goaltender at her strongest.

Last quotes of the season. . .