🇺🇸 United States 4-2 Canada 🇨🇦
Women’s World Championship Qualifying Round
Baqu Arena, Harbin 🇨🇳
Thursday, 10 April 2008

Using a trio of power-play tallies, the U.S. Women’s National Team posted a 4-2 victory over Canada to advance to the Gold medal game of the 2008 International Ice Hockey Federation World Women’s Championship here today at the Baqu Arena. The United States and Canada will rematch for the championship on Saturday 12 April.

After Canada went up 2-1 in the first period, Team USA tied it up in the second frame and added the game-winner midway through the final stanza to secure its first World Championship victory over the Canadians since 2005.

“We’re very proud of our team’s effort this afternoon,” said Jackie Barto, head coach for Team USA. “We stuck to our game plan and executed extremely well. We were able to apply a lot of pressure on the forecheck and generate energy off that. The difference today was the execution of our power play and penalty kill and we came up big with key blocked shots. We had our backs against the wall and we were able to get the job done. We look forward to Saturday’s rematch in the Gold medal game.”

The Canadians jumped on the board first in the opening frame, using their first power-play chance to take an early 1-0 lead. After U.S. netminder Jessie Vetter made the initial save on a Gina Kingsbury shot, Jayna Hefford put the rebound high into the net at 4:21.

Just over ten minutes later, at 15:34, Team USA converted on its own power play to knot the score at 1-1. Julie Chu sent a pass to Natalie Darwitz, who skated the puck into the Canadian zone and put it between Charline Labonté’s legs with a low wrister from the goalmouth at 15:34. The tie did not last long, as Kelly Bechard wristed a shot just inside the far post from the right faceoff circle at 16:08 to give Canada a 2-1 advantage.

While up a man in the second period, the United States tied the game at 2-2. Rachael Drazan took a shot from the left point that deflected off Gigi Marvin to Caitlin Cahow in the right faceoff circle. Cahow one-timed it past Labonté at 6:33.

Team USA capitalized again on the power play in the third stanza to take its first lead of the game. Jenny Potter passed to Darwitz in the right corner and Darwitz fed it to Meghan Duggan, who slapped it in it from the bottom of the slot at 8:24 for a 3-2 score.

The U.S. lead lasted through the remainder of the frame and Darwitz added an empty-net insurance goal at 19:36 with Labonté pulled in favour of an extra attacker.

Labonté made 16 saves in net for Canada, while Vetter stopped 14 for the United States.

NOTES: Natalie Darwitz was named U.S. Player of the Game…Team USA outshot Canada by a 20-16 margin…Team USA was 3-for-10 on the power play, while holding Canada to 1-for-9…Julie Chu played played at forward during the game…The last time Team USA beat Canada in World Championship play came in the Gold medal game in 2005, when the United States posted a 1-0 shootout win…Team USA has won one Gold medal and nine Silver medals in the 10 previous IIHF World Women’s Championships.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
00:56 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Vaillancourt, hooking
02:44 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Parsons, tripping
04:21 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – Hefford (Kingsbury, Kellar)
06:37 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Faber, interference
09:05 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Weatherston, body checking
13:18 – 🇨🇦 PEN – team, too many players
14:42 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Sostorics, holding
15:34 – 🇺🇸 PP GOAL – Darwitz (Lawler, Chu)
16:08 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Bechard (MacLeod)
17:05 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Bellamy, hooking

2nd Period
20:46 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Stack, tripping
25:26 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Vaillancourt, hooking
26:33 – 🇺🇸 PP GOAL – Cahow (Marvin, Drazan)
27:35 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Botterill, hooking
28:54 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Schmidgall, hooking
32:00 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Parsons, holding
35:44 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Ouellette, body checking
37:43 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Collins, hooking

3rd Period
40:47 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Bellamy, elbowing
42:19 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Apps, body checking
46:17 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Vaillancourt, interference
48:24 – 🇺🇸 GOAL – Duggan (Darwitz, Schmidgall)
48:46 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Thatcher, interference
53:06 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Drazan, holding
59:36 – 🇺🇸 EN GOAL – Darwitz (Chu)

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇺🇸 Vetter (14-16)
L: 🇨🇦 Labonté (16-19)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇺🇸 7+8+5 = 20
🇨🇦 7+5+4 = 16

ROSTERS
🇺🇸 Goaltenders: Molly Schaus, Jessie Vetter. Defence: Kacey Bellamy, Caitlin Cahow, Rachael Drazan, Molly Engstrom, Angela Ruggiero, Kerry Weiland. Forwards: Julie Chu, Natalie Darwitz, Meghan Duggan, Sam Faber, Hilary Knight, Jessica Koizumi, Erika Lawler, Gigi Marvin, Sarah Parsons, Jenny Schmidgall, Kelli Stack, Karen Thatcher.
🇨🇦 Goaltenders: Charline Labonté, Kim St-Pierre. Defence: Delaney Collins, Gillian Ferrari, Becky Kellar, Carla MacLeod, Meaghan Mikkelson, Colleen Sostorics. Forwards: Meghan Agosta, Gillian Apps, Kelly Bechard, Jennifer Botterill, Jayna Hefford, Rebecca Johnston, Gina Kingsbury, Caroline Ouellette, Cherie Piper, Sarah Vaillancourt, Katie Weatherston, Hayley Wickenheiser.

Article Credit: USA Hockey
Photo Credit: Hockey Canada – IIHF – HHOF – IOC