Lake Placid, N.Y. — Nicole Hensley (Lakewood, Colo.) stopped 18 of 19 shots and four different U.S. players scored as the U.S. Women’s Under-22 Select Team defeated Canada, 4-1, here today to open competition at the 2015 Under-22 Series.

Today was the first in a three-game series between the two teams at the Herb Brooks Arena at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, New York.

Cayley Mercer opened the scoring with a wraparound goal at 10:36 of the first period to give Canada a 1-0 advantage heading into the first intermission, but the U.S. gained the lead with a pair of goals 2:35 apart in the second stanza. Dana Trivigno (Setauket, N.Y.) received a backhanded pass from Lexie Laing (Marblehead, Mass.) and beat Canada goaltender Amanda Leveille in close at 14:31 before Hannah Brandt (Vadnais Heights, Minn.) made the score 2-1 minutes later.

Team USA extended its lead to 3-1 at 3:48 of the third period during a power-play opportunity when Haley Skarupa (Rockville, Md.) one-timed a shot at the top of the crease on a feed from Jenny Ryan (Victor, N.Y.).

With 3:39 to play, Annie Pankowski (Laguna Hills, Calif.) sent a drop pass to Sydney Daniels (Southwick, Mass.) in the high slot for the wrister into Canada’s net to account for the 4-1 final.

Team USA will face off against Canada on Friday (Aug. 21) at 3 p.m. ET.

Notes: The U.S. Women's Under-22 Select Team was chosen from the USA Hockey Women’s National Festival that took place Aug. 11-16 in Lake Placid, New York ... The three-game series vs. Canada is an annual event between the two countries held 11 times since 1999 ... All games from the series are being streamed live and are available at usahockey.fasthockey.com ... Follow @USAHockeyScores on Twitter for live scoring updates with the #U22Series hashtag ... A complete on-ice schedule, including games, and series information can be found here.