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Eight members of Montreal’s PWHL team got a chance to experience what it’s like to skate at an almost-full Bell Centre on Sunday.

Captain Marie-Philip Poulin, Erin Ambrose, Sarah Bujold, Mariah Keopple, Sarah Lefort, Maureen Murphy, Laura Stacey and Tereza Vanisova joined the Canadiens to take part in their annual Skills Competition.

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Montreal is in first place in the six-team PWHL with an 8-2-3 record during the league’s inaugural season. The team has been a success both on and off the ice, beating Minnesota 2-1 two Sundays ago in front of a sellout crowd of 10,172 at Place Bell in Laval, while also selling out games at their regular home rink, the Verdun Auditorium, with a capacity of just over 4,000. Montreal moved into first place with a 6-3 win over Ottawa on Saturday in Verdun.

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Ambrose was asked after Sunday’s skills competition if she’s surprised by Montreal’s early PWHL success.

“I would say I’m not one bit surprised, to be honest,” she said. “When I was first drafted here I was beyond excited to be able to come back. I had the opportunity to play here in the CWHL for Les Canadiennes and the fans have always been incredible.”

Ambrose was born in Newmarket, Ont., and started playing hockey at age 5. The 29-year-old defenceman won an NCAA championship with Clarkson University in 2014 — the same year she joined the national team — and won an Olympic gold medal with Team Canada at the 2022 Games in Beijing. Montreal selected her in the first round (sixth overall) of last year’s PWHL Draft.

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“Being from a city like Toronto, I compare it a lot to what goes on there,” Ambrose said about Montreal’s inaugural PWHL season. “To come here and to go to a game at the Bell Centre, to hear the Habs fans, and then to get to our games, every other team in our league says it that our fans are louder than everybody else. It’s a testament to the city, a testament to the hockey culture here and the fans that truly have loved and embraced us since the very beginning.”

Ambrose had a chance to meet Cole Caufield for the first time on Sunday and they were able to chat on the ice before the start of the Skills Competition. Ambrose said they talked about hockey, how the season is going for both teams, Montreal fans and living in Montreal.

“We’re hockey players, too,” Ambrose said. “We play the exact same sport and we’re representing the same city.”

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When Montreal lost 3-0 to Toronto on Feb. 16 at Scotiabank Arena, the teams set a PWHL and women’s hockey attendance record with a crowd of 19,285. A sold-out game at the Bell Centre — with a capacity of 21,105 — would break that record, but it won’t happen during the regular season this year. Four of Montreal’s five remaining regular-season home games will be at Verdun Auditorium and one at Place Bell.

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“To have the opportunity to play at the Bell Centre would be historical, I think, is the best word to say,” Ambrose said. “We’ve talked about how great our fans have been, the way they’ve showed up in Laval, the way they’ve showed up at Verdun, the way they showed up on the road, too, in Toronto. We would love that opportunity and hopefully it can happen. I know that I’m crossing my fingers that we can be here. I mean, it would be pretty unbelievable to walk out there and kind of hear the crowd erupt. It would be something pretty monumental.”

Having the PWHL women take part in the Canadiens’ Skills Competition was also pretty monumental. At the end of the competition, Poulin and Canadiens captain Nick Suzuki exchanged sweaters at centre ice. Two captains who represent their teams with class both on and off the ice.

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“Marie-Philip Poulin is instrumental to the game of hockey,” Ambrose said. “For me, personally, I can’t say enough things about the person she is, the way that she changes my day-to-day habits, my day-to-day ability to be a better person — not just as a hockey player. And then with this league, to have the best player in the world being a part of kind of what it took to get to this point, there aren’t enough ways to put it into words.

“For us as a group and this team, Marie-Philip Poulin is our captain, she’s our leader,” Ambrose added. “The best part about her is she doesn’t just do the things or say the things that she wants our team to do. She’s the first one to kind of show us the way. It’s carry on and let’s follow Pou because there’s no way that anywhere she goes we wouldn’t follow her through thick and thin. So pretty honoured to be captained by her and to be able to call her a friend.”

Montreal’s next game will be Saturday against Boston at the Verdun Auditorium (4 p.m., RDS).

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