Jason La Rose
Marie-Philip Poulin has gone where only four women have gone before.
The Beauceville, Que., product recorded her 200th point with Canada’s National Women’s Team on Monday night – in her 167th game – with the final goal of a 5-1 win over the United States, joining Hayley Wickenheiser (379), Jayna Hefford (291), Caroline Ouellette (242) and Danielle Goyette (219) in reaching the milestone.
So how did Poulin get here? There have been countless highlights during Poulin’s almost 16 years wearing the Maple Leaf, but let’s take a look back at a few of the most memorable and important points she recorded on her way to 200.
Poulin needed less than eight minutes of her first national team game to put her name on the scoresheet, earning the second assist on a goal by Bobbi Jo Slusar in a 4-1 win over Sweden at the Fall Festival in Prince George, B.C.
The youngest player at camp at just 16 years old, Poulin added two goals in that first game, and potted two more in a rematch three days later, finishing with five points in two games and setting the stage for what was to come.
25TH/26TH POINTS – February 25, 2010
The legend of Poulin as a big-game player officially began in Vancouver, when she scored both goals in a 2-0 win over the United States that gave Canada a memorable Olympic gold medal, its third in a row, on home ice.
She opened her unrivalled Olympic account (more on that later) with a goal in a tournament-opening win over Slovakia and added singles against Switzerland and Sweden, but it’s the two against the Americans, in a game watched by more than 7.5 million Canadians, that made her a household name.
Poulin helped another Team Canada legend reach a milestone of her own at the 2012 4 Nations Cup in Kerava, Finland, earning the primary helper on Jayna Hefford’s 150th international goal to finish off a 6-0 win over the host Finns.
In addition to her 200 points, Poulin is within striking distance of a goal-scoring mark – she needs three to join Wickenheiser, Hefford and Goyette and the only players to score 100 goals with Canada’s National Women’s Team.
72ND/73RD POINTS – February 20, 2014
The Comeback. Poulin was front and centre again on the game’s biggest stage as Canada battled back to win an unlikely Olympic gold in Sochi. Down 2-0 to the Americans with less than four minutes to go, Brianne Jenner pulled Canada to within one … and Poulin took over from there.
After the U.S. hit the post on the empty Canadian net, Poulin buried a feed from Haley Irwin to tie the game with 55 seconds left and force overtime. And, of course, she provided the extra-time heroics as well, scoring on the power play to make it four Olympic gold medals in a row for Canada.
100TH POINT – December 19, 2016
Poulin became the 12th member of the 100-point club as only she could, reaching the century mark when she set up Jennifer Wakefield for the game-tying goal with 24 seconds remaining in the second game of a two-game series against the U.S. in Sarnia, Ont.
In true Poulin fashion, she added the game-winning goal 52 seconds into overtime, helping Canada to the series sweep.
Another milestone, another overtime goal. Poulin reached 150 points – just the seventh to do it – 7:22 into the extra period in the gold medal game at the 2021 IIHF Women’s World Championship in Calgary, giving Canada a 3-2 win and its first world title since 2012.
As is her M.O., she was all over the scoresheet with gold on the line; point No. 149 came early in the second period when she set up Brianne Jenner to get the Canadians on the board and cut the U.S. lead to 2-1.
177TH/178TH/179TH POINTS – February 17, 2022
Captain Clutch was just that in Beijing, getting in on all three Canadian goals in a 3-2 gold medal game win over the U.S. She set up Sarah Nurse for the ice-breaker eight minutes in (passing Meghan Agosta for fifth in all-time Team Canada scoring), scored seven minutes later and added a second goal midway through the second period.
Poulin has played in four Olympic gold medal games and scored in all of them: two goals in Vancouver, two goals in Sochi, a goal in PyeongChang, and two goals and an assist in Beijing. In the three Canadian wins, she has the game-winner in all of them. Remarkable.