Inferno ready for winner-take-all showdown against Les Canadiennes
Brianne Jenner doesn't expect an exact repeat of last year's impressive Clarkson Cup performance by the Calgary Inferno.
But the Calgary captain would definitely like to duplicate the feeling of winning another Canadian Women's Hockey League title.
She'll get that chance on Sunday (2 p.m., Sportsnet 360), when she and her Inferno teammates take on Les Canadiennes de Montreal at Ottawa's Canadian Tire Centre.
“It's a one-game, winner takes all,” said Jenner, who led the Inferno in scoring during the regular season with nine goals and 18 assists in 20 games. “You've just got to come ready to battle. It's whoever shows up and performs and takes care of the little things, manages the puck well. Trying to limit our turnovers will be something important for us.”
To cap off her rookie CWHL season in 2016, Jenner scored twice as Calgary beat Montreal 8-3 to capture the franchise's first Clarkson Cup.
“That game last year was the best game we played the entire season,” recalled Jenner. “Everything came together. That's exactly what you want to do, but sometimes the chips don't always fall that way.”
After finishing atop the CWHL standing with a 20-4 record this season, the Inferno won their firstround playoff series in three games over the Toronto Furies.
“Having gone through that and facing a little bit of adversity, we feel confident that we came back from being down a game,” said Jenner, who had a goal and three assists during the series.
Meanwhile, Montreal beat the Brampton Thunder 7-1 and 5-1 to set up a rematch of last year's Clarkson Cup final.
“They've got a core group that has been playing together for a lot of years and that group has been to more Clarkson Cup finals than any other team in the league,” said Jenner, referring to the fact that Montreal has been to the league final three straight years and in six of the past eight seasons.
“We don't underestimate them. We split the series (3-3) with them this year and we certainly respect them as an opponent. It's a pretty fierce rivalry, so we're just excited to show what we can do.”
Calgary coach Scott Reid also doesn't presume that the Inferno will be able to win by five goals like last year.
“Nothing's going to be handed to us and it's not going to be easy,” said Reid, who expects Les Canadiennes to be better prepared this time around. “It's probably going to be a one-goal game and maybe even overtime, so we've just got to be ready.
“I think they're going to be more motivated this year. They've set out a goal from the beginning of the year to have this opportunity to face us in a final or make it back to the final and have some redemption. They're going to bring their A game, so we have to be ready to do that as well.”
The Inferno will have to focus on shutting down Montreal's talented offensive trio of Marie-Philip Poulin, Ann-Sophie Bettez and Caroline Ouellette. Poulin tied Brampton's Jess Jones for the regular-season scoring lead at 37 points, while Bettez and Ouellette finished third and fourth respectively.
“If we can shut them down and have our depth take over, hopefully we can be successful,” said Reid, while noting that he's instructed his players to make Montreal goalie Charline Labonte's job as problematic as possible. “It doesn't matter what goalie you are, you can't stop what you can't see. Hopefully we can get some traffic in front of her and make life difficult for her.”
Poulin, Bettez and Ouellette combined for 11 points in the two playoff games against Brampton, while defender Cathy Chartrand chipped in with a goal and four assists.
“They've got some really good scorers, but I think we're extremely deep in every position, so we feel confident that way,” said Jenner, who assisted on all three of linemate Iya Gavrilova's playoff goals against Toronto.
“She's putting everything in the net. I'm just trying to get her the puck as much as I can. She's a sniper, so we're happy that her stick's hot right now.”