Salt Lake City, UT

By Lois Slain

Montreal Roller Derby, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, started off relatively evenly matched against their second opponent of the day Saturday, No Coast Derby Girls of Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. However, Montreal capitalized on No Coast jammer penalties to build up a solid first half lead and run away with the game momentum.

Photo by Donna Olmstead

A flurry of jammer penalties on both sides set the tone for the first 7 minutes, leading to multiple 2-minute jams. Montreal did slightly better on the penalty kills and took a 25-15 lead.

Both teams had a high number of jammer penalties in the first half, Montreal with 6 and No Coast with 7.

Just as it looked like Montreal was starting to run away with the game, No Coast capitalized on a quick succession of Montreal blocker penalties to come back within 6 points. As the team struggled to find their footing, Montreal called a timeout with 16 minutes left on the period clock and the score sitting at 49-35 in their favor.

The timeout seemed to allow the team to reset, and Montreal took control of the game from then on, holding No Coast scoreless for several jams at a time. At halftime, the score was 137 to 58.

Montreal came back from the halftime break on a tear, holding No Coast scoreless for four jams as they added 16 points to their total. No Coast responded with an 11-point jam on the wheels of jammer Anna Cassube, while the No Coast blockers held Montreal’s Honey Badger in the pack.

However, No Coast was unable to continue the momentum and would not score again for eight more jams as they continued to struggle to keep players on the track. Overall, they had 25 penalties per period, including 7 jammer penalties in the first half and 5 in the second.

With big hits and heavy defensive recycling on both sides, Montreal did not put too many points on the board during No Coast’s scoreless jams, with a 12-point jam from Mel E Juana and a 9-point jam from Honey Badger as their largest gains.

Play again evened out in the final 10 minutes of the game, with both teams adding points. But, in keeping with the theme of the game, No Coast jammer Christy Johnson earned a forearm penalty in the final jam, allowing Mel E Juana to top off Montreal’s lead with another 14 points before calling the game.

Montreal advances to play for 5th Place on Sunday while No Coast will compete for 7th.

Final Score

(9) No Coast Derby Girls 95
(5) Montreal Roller Derby 237