The Rise were two minutes away from completing a dramatic comeback on Saturday night.

Instead, they left watching another lead disappear almost as quickly as it arrived.

Four goals in the final 25 minutes turned a tense match against the Roses into a frenzied finish at Swangard Stadium. Vancouver managed to come back twice, but Evelyn Badu’s 93rd-minute equalizer forced both teams to settle for a point.

For interim head coach Iain Darbyshire, the match showed the level his team can reach.

“I think you’ve just seen a championship-level game,” Darbyshire said. “And we can’t say that too many times about us this season.”

Vancouver started with intent.

Jessica De Filippo had the first opportunity inside 90 seconds, rising to meet a cross at the near post but sending her header over. Five minutes later, she nearly created the opener herself, releasing Mia Pante down the left.

Pante drove toward goal before her effort took a deflection and narrowly missed the far post.

Montréal had its own response in the 16th minute. Stéphanie Hill met a free kick with a volley that struck the post dangerously close before Vancouver cleared by some miracle.

De Filippo continued to cause problems. She received the ball on the right side of the box and forced Montréal goalkeeper Anna Karpenko into a strong save.

The chances kept coming, but the goals did not.

Vancouver went into halftime level despite creating enough opportunities to feel they should have been ahead.

“We had so many in the first half that we came in at halftime really disappointed,” Darbyshire said. “We thought we should have been a couple of goals up.”

The numbers backed up Vancouver’s sense of missed opportunity. Rise finished with 18 shots to Montréal’s 10 and put six of them on target.

Still, the score remained 0-0.

That intensity carried into the second half.

Alex Lamontagne came close after breaking down the right while Abdu nearly opened the scoring in the 56th minute. A deflected cross fell into her path, but her powerful effort sailed just over the bar.

Montréal finally found the breakthrough in the 67th minute.

Lisa Pechersky pounced on a loose ball and placed her finish into the far corner. The goal gave the Roses a 1-0 lead against her former club.

Vancouver immediately pushed back.

Jessica Wulf produced an important save moments later to keep Rise within one, and Vancouver continued to press for an equalizer.

Pante said there was no panic inside the group.

“When we went down 1-0, we all looked at each other in the eyes, and we were like, ‘We got this. No need to panic, no need to freak out. Let’s keep the ball, let’s do our thing,’” she said.

That belief eventually turned into a goal by none other than the reigning league leader.

In the 83rd minute, Yuka Okamoto’s cross took a deflection and dropped perfectly for De Filippo.

She made no mistake. Her finish marked her 12th goal of the season and moved her outright to the top of the NSL Golden Boot race.

Vancouver suddenly had momentum.

De Filippo nearly found a second moments later, meeting Camila Reyes’ corner but heading over. Tori Tumeth then drove forward and created another opening, finding Abdu in behind.

Karpenko denied the forward again, but Rise kept pushing for more.

Two minutes into stoppage time, Oularbi’s corner found Tumeth. The defender rose highest and headed the ball into the net.

Swangard erupted.

Vancouver had gone from 1-0 down to 2-1 up in the space of nine minutes.

For a moment, the comeback was complete. Unfortunately for the Rise, they let it slip.

The Roses seized the opportunity and pushed forward immediately. In the 93rd minute, substitute Evelyn Badu fired home to make it 2-2.

The turnaround took less than a minute.

Vancouver still refused to sit back. Rise pushed forward again in the closing seconds, searching for another winner rather than protecting the point.

“I’m proud of the resilience and of how we were as a group,” Darbyshire said. “Even when they made it 2-2, in the last couple of minutes, it was us pushing for the goal.”

Pante saw the same fight.

“Soccer is chaotic; the most unlucky things can happen in this sport,” she said. “But I think you could see the fight in there. We weren’t happy with the 2-2. We were competing and creating chances to the last minute.”

The draw extended Montréal’s franchise-record unbeaten run to six matches and moved the Roses to 11-4-6 with 39 points.

Montréal had already secured its place in the Northern Super League playoffs before kickoff following AFC Toronto’s 1-1 draw with Halifax Tides FC earlier Saturday.

Interim head coach Maryse Bard-Martel said the playoff berth did not change her team’s approach.

“Our playoff spot was confirmed before we even walked onto the pitch, but the players approached this match with the exact same rigour and high standards for themselves,” Bard-Martel said.

The Roses were also making history of their own. Anna Heilferty made her Montréal debut, entering at the start of the second half.

Bard-Martel was proud of the late response but made it clear that a draw was not the desired outcome.

“Coming back in the final minutes of stoppage time away against Vancouver speaks to the maturity and character of this group,” she said. “That said, we have the squad to win these kinds of matches, so we are not satisfied with a draw.”

For Vancouver, the result comes at a crucial stage of the playoff race.

Rise remain focused on controlling what they can as the regular season enters its final stretch.

“I think we do a really good job at focusing on us and looking into our strengths,” Pante said. “If we all can come to every game with 100%, and if we can show up every day to training to focus on us and compete for this playoff spot, no team can stop us.”

The disappointment was obvious after conceding so quickly after taking the lead.

Darbyshire believes the experience could become valuable.

“We’re proud of the performance, really disappointed to drop the two points,” he said. “And I think that this pain is going to be good for us in the long run.”

Vancouver now begins a three-week stretch on the road.

Rise travel to face Calgary Wild FC on September 27 at 1 p.m. PT before heading east to face AFC Toronto on October 4 and Ottawa Rapid FC on October 18.

The final regular-season match will then take place at Swangard Stadium on October 25, when Vancouver hosts Calgary for its Fan Appreciation Match.

For a Vancouver side still fighting for its playoff place, Saturday offered both frustration and encouragement.

Rise found the fight to come back twice; they just could not find the final whistle before Montréal found its answer.