HERNING, Denmark – Team USA scored five unanswered goals in a 5-2 win over Canada to close out the preliminary round of the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship here tonight at the KVIK Ice Center in Herning, Denmark.
With the win, the U.S. finished the preliminary round with a perfect 4-0-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) record and earned the top seed. Team USA will take on Hungary in the quarterfinals on Thursday (Sept. 1) at 4:00 p.m. local time (10:00 a.m. ET) and the game can be seen live on NHL Network.
“I thought it was a pretty classic back-and-forth,” said John Wroblewski (Neenah, Wis.), head coach of the 2022 U.S. Women’s National Team. “I thought we started off strongly, but Canada held us off and capitalized on a couple of bounces. The game shifted to our way, and we got the huge bounce on the power play. Our goaltender was able to make some huge saves in the second period and afford us the opportunity to get into that battle. Great storyline for us to have our captain be the one that gave us that two goal lead."
Despite generating a handful of quality chances and outshooting the Canadians in the opening period, Canada found the back of the net at the 3:29 mark and added another while on the power play to head to the first intermission with a 2-0 lead.
Megan Keller (Farmington Hills, Mich.) was able to bring the U.S. within a goal while on the power play 4:16 into the middle frame. Hannah Bilka (Coppell, Texas) moved the puck to Keller at the point, who tried to find a lane through traffic. The partially fanned shot attempt from Keller redirected off a Canadian defender’s skate and into the net. Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) also picked up an assist on the goal.
Team USA found the equalizer with just under nine minutes to play in the period, when Kelly Pannek (Plymouth, Minn.) was able to redirect a wrist shot from Cayla Barnes (Eastvale, Calif.).
Lacey Eden (Annapolis, Md.) scored the go-ahead goal just 3:14 into the third period when she sent a shot from the left faceoff dot over the blocker of Canada’s Emerance Maschmeyer. Savannah Harmon (Downers Grove, Ill.) and Keller each earned assists on the play.
U.S. captain Kendall Coyne Schofield (Palos Heights, Ill.) kept things rolling and extended the lead to 4-2 with under seven minutes to play. Harmon picked up a loose puck and fired a shot from the point. Coyne Schofield battled for positioning in front of the goal and was able to poke home the rebound.
An empty-net goal from Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho) sealed the win for Team USA in the final minute.
Nicole Hensley (Lakewood, Colo.) got her second start in net for the U.S. and finished with 26 saves.
NOTES: Savannah Harmon was named the Player of the Game for Team USA … Team USA outshot Canada 33-28… Team USA and Canada were both 1-2 on the power play ... Click here for pregame information.