Les Canadiennes maintained their season-long home ice advantage with a pair of wins vs. the Brampton Thunder in front of packed crowds on Saturday at the Boisbriand Municipal Arena and on Sunday at the Bell Sports Complex in Brossard.

With the wins, Les Canadiennes (18-2-0) clinched home ice for the opening round of the playoffs. Unbeaten at home this season, the team has also now won 11 straight games while extending its lead atop the CWHL standings to six points over the Calgary Inferno and seven over the Thunder.

Marie-Philip Poulin and Ann-Sophie Bettez continued their successful stretches while beginning to pull away at the top of the CWHL scoring pack. Poulin recorded six points on the weekend (four goals, two assists) to bring her season total to a League-best 36 points (21 goals, 15 assists). Bettez, meanwhile, notched four points (two goals, two assists), extending her point streak to 11 games. She currently sits second among point-getters, just three points behind Poulin.

Kim Deschênes and Caroline Ouellette also stayed hot to move up the CWHL scoring ladder. Deschênes picked up a pair of assists to climb into a tie for fourth with 26 points while Ouellette added four points to her totals to rank sixth, one point back of her teammate.

Saturday, Feb. 6: Les Canadiennes 5, Brampton Thunder 4 (shootout)

Les Canadiennes dominated the opening period, outshooting Brampton 16-5 but goaltender Erica Howe was on top of her game, denying all opportunities. Howe’s strong play opened the door Rebecca Vint to break the scoreless tie at 16:42.

Brampton doubled its lead 45 seconds into the middle frame on a tally from Sarah Edney.

Marie-Philip Poulin got Les Canadiennes on the board four minutes later when she connected on the power play.

Courtney Birchard restored the Thunder’s two-goal lead with a shorthanded marker at 18:00. Ann-Sophie Bettez brought Les Canadiennes back to within one on 37 seconds later, on the same power play.

Poulin brought the game back to square one with her second of the night at 15:00 of the third period. But then, less than two minutes later, Becca King struck to give Brampton the 4-3 lead.

Trailing by one and shorthanded in the final minute, Les Canadiennes pulled goaltender Charline Labonté for the extra attacker and captain Cathy Chartrand fired a shot from the slot with 28 seconds left on the clock to send this one to a tiebreaker.

After overtime solved nothing, Poulin scored in the shootout and Labonté denied all three Brampton shooters to clinch the comeback victory.

Game summary: http://bit.ly/20160206BRM

Sunday, Feb. 7: Les Canadiennes 5, Brampton Thunder 2

Marie-Philip Poulin got the scoring started on the power play when she fired a shot from point at 16:06 of the first period. The lead was short-lived, however, with Rebecca Vint picking up her second of the weekend just 10 seconds later.

The teams traded chances in the second period but would come up empty until Lauriane Rougeau put Montreal ahead 2-1 at 18:55.

Ouellette extended Les Canadiennes’ lead 3:14 into the third period with a shorthanded snipe from the left circle. Vint replied with a shorthanded marker of her own two and a half minutes later.

Poulin put the home side back up by a pair at 17:45 when she finished off a tic-tac-toe passing play with linemates Ann-Sophie Bettez and Kim Deschênes with a shot from the right circle.

Bettez closed out the scoring with an empty net goal with 16 seconds remaining.

Game summary: http://bit.ly/20160207BRM

Upcoming Schedule

Les Canadiennes will hit the road for one final regular season series when they visit the Calgary Inferno on Saturday, Feb. 13 (7:30 p.m. ET) and Sunday, Feb. 14 (1:30 p.m. ET). Both games will be streamed live on CWHLLive.com.