Montreal and Ottawa sit first second in the NSL standings

The Roses (3-1-0, 10 points) head to Ottawa on Saturday for the first meeting of the season between the league’s top two sides. It’s also Montreal’s third consecutive road match before a well-earned return to Stade Boréale on May 30 against Vancouver Rise FC. 

The trip to Calgary left a bitter taste. Ahead in the 90th minute on Claire Monyard’s late strike, the Roses watched the Wild reply in stoppage time to grab a 2-2 draw. Two points dropped, and a three-match clean-sheet streak gone.

In Ottawa, the brief is simple: get back the sharpness in the closing minutes that slipped in Alberta. Everything else keeps humming. Elyse Bennett still leads the NSL scoring chart with four goals. Lucy Cappadona and Mégane Sauvé still haven’t left the pitch through four matches. Charlotte Bilbault, Lisa Pechersky, and Chloe Minas continue to run the midfield, and Evelyn Badu, after a decisive cameo in Toronto and a second appearance at Calgary, is starting to push for more of Robert Rositoiu’s minutes.

The opposition

The Rapid come into this one in good form, off a convincing 4-0 win at Vancouver on May 6 that featured a brace from Delaney Baie Pridham. The 2025 Golden Boot winner, NSL Player of the Year, and league’s all-time leading scorer with 18 goals in the 2025 season, represents the toughest defensive assignment the Roses have faced this year.

Pridham doesn’t carry the load alone. Jyllissa Harris, the 2025 Defender of the Year, anchors the back line. South Korean midfielder Min A Lee, named to the 2025 NSL Team of the Season, brings creativity to the final third. On the bench, Katrine Pedersen, the former Danish international hired this winter, inherits a side that finished second in the regular-season standings in 2025. 

The two clubs met five times last season, splitting the series down the middle: two wins each and one draw.

Things to watch

Pridham against Cappadona, Stéphanie Hill, and Anne-Valérie Seto: that’s the matchup that could tip the balance. The Roses have conceded just twice in four matches, and both came late against Calgary. Holding for the full 90 is the challenge.

Up top, Bennett still leads the line, but the recent matches have shown how much of an asset the squad’s depth has become for Rositoiu. With Badu and Noémi Paquin available off the bench last weekend, the second wave of the attack keeps taking shape.

Broadcast

Saturday, May 23, 2026 - 1:00 p.m. ET / TD Place, Ottawa

The match will be broadcast live on TSN and RDS 2 in Canada. International broadcast on ESPN+.