Marie-Philip Poulin has hat trick in Victoire's 4-1 win over Charge

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LAVAL, Quebec (AP) — Marie-Philip Poulin had a hat trick and the Montreal Victoire beat the Ottawa Charge 4-1 on Wednesday night to take the Professional Women’s Hockey League lead.

Poulin has a league-high eight goals. Jennifer Gardiner also scored and assisted on two of Poulin’s goals. Montreal (7-2-1-2) moved past Minnesota for the PWHL lead, with Ann-Renée Desbiens making 31 saves for her league-leading seventh victory.

Former Montreal winger Tereza Vanisova scored for Ottawa (5-0-2-7). It has lost five of six.

Victoire: Kept rolling without. The Victoire returned to play after a 10-day break to win their third game in a row with Laura Stacey sidelined by a lower-body injury.

Charge: The Charge only took a 1-0 advantage in the first period despite dominating the shots 15-6 as Desbiens kept the Victoire in the game.

Shortly after Ottawa’s Emily Clark missed on a breakaway with the Charge up 1-0, Poulin tied it with a one-timer 2:09 into the second period.

Ottawa is at Toronto on Saturday. Montreal hosts Toronto on Thursday night.

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AP Women’s Hockey: https://apnews.com/hub/womens-hockey