🇨🇦 Canada 4-2 United States 🇺🇸
Exhibition Game
Magness Arena, Denver 🇺🇸
Saturday, 12 December 2009

Canada’s National Women’s Team may have crossed over onto American soil Saturday night, but some spectacular saves by Kim St-Pierre and crisp offensive passing helped the Canadians earn a 4-2 win south of the border at the University of Denver’s Magness Arena.

This latest victory also gives Canada an edge against the United States in 2009-10, with four wins and three losses.

Gina Kingsbury opened the scoring for Canada midway through the first period, picking up the puck after it bounced off the back boards and slipping it past American netminder Jessie Vetter. Meghan Agosta earned the assist after skating hard to the net and firing a shot in the direction of Vetter to create the chance.

Gillian Ferrari, Caroline Ouellette and Hayley Wickenheiser also sent some rockets soaring in Vetter’s direction during the first, but to no avail, sending Canada to the dressing room up 1-0.

The Canadians came out flying in the second, pushing their lead to 3-0 with two goals less than a minute apart in the early minutes of the period.

Marie-Philip Poulin finished off a game of Canadian tic-tac-toe to make it 2-0 on a Canadian power play, finishing off a pretty passing play from Sarah Vaillancourt and Catherine Ward, and Ouellette made it a three-goal lead 58 seconds later, scoring after a scramble in front of Vetter.

There was more back-and-forth action in the third, with Karen Thatcher cracking the goose egg for the United States just over five minutes into the period to make it 3-1, but Agosta answered back for Canada less than thirty seconds later to restore the three-goal advantage.

Hilary Knight put one more past St-Pierre on an American power play with the minutes ticking down, but that would be as close as the U.S. got. Pulling Vetter in the dying minutes wasn’t enough to sway the game in the direction of the Americans, with Canada claiming the win in front of a pro-U.S. crowd.

The United States will have a chance to come back this Tuesday, 15 December, but this time it will be on Canada’s home turf, with the puck dropping at Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, Alberta.

The two international rival teams will also face off against each other on Wednesday, 30 December at the Xcel Energy Centre in Saint Paul, Minnesota and on Friday, 01 January at SBP Arena in Ottawa, Ontario.

BOXSCORE
1st Period
00:36 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Ruggiero, body checking
04:36 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Schmidgall, hooking
10:14 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Kingsbury (Agosta)
12:16 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Ferrari, interference
15:27 – 🇺🇸 PEN – J. Lamoureux, cross checking
15:48 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Ouellette, roughing

2nd Period
21:57 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Vaillancourt, body checking
25:05 – 🇺🇸 PEN – Engstrom, body checking
26:30 – 🇨🇦 PP GOAL – Poulin (Vaillancourt, Ward)
27:28 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Ouellette (Hefford, Botterill)
34:15 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Vaillancourt, body checking

3rd Period
42:17 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Irwin, high sticking
45:07 – 🇺🇸 GOAL – Thatcher (Welland, Lawler)
45:24 – 🇨🇦 GOAL – Agosta (Hefford, Ward)
52:10 – 🇺🇸 PEN – M. Lamoureux, holding
57:25 – 🇨🇦 PEN – Irwin, hooking
57:33 – 🇺🇸 PP GOAL – Knight (Schmidgall, Cahow)

GOALTENDERS
W: 🇨🇦 St-Pierre (27-29)
L: 🇺🇸 Vetter (26-30)

SHOTS ON GOAL
🇨🇦 11+10+9 = 30
🇺🇸 9+5+15 = 29

ROSTERS
🇨🇦 Goaltenders: Charline Labonté, Kim St-Pierre, Shannon Szabados. Defence: Tessa Bonhomme, Becky Kellar, Carla MacLeod, Meaghan Mikkelson, Colleen Sostorics, Catherine Ward. Forwards: Meghan Agosta, Gillian Apps, Jennifer Botterill, Jayna Hefford (A), Haley Irwin, Rebecca Johnston, Gina Kingsbury, Caroline Ouellette (A), Cherie Piper, Marie-Philip Poulin, Sarah Vaillancourt, Hayley Wickenheiser (C).
🇺🇸 Goaltenders: Brianne McLaughlin, Molly Schaus, Jessie Vetter. Defence: Kacey Bellamy, Caitlin Cahow, Lisa Chesson, Molly Engstrom, Angela Ruggiero, Kerry Weiland. Forwards: Julie Chu (A), Natalie Darwitz (C), Meghan Duggan, Hilary Knight, Jocelyne Lamoureux, Monique Lamoureux, Erika Lawler, Gigi Marvin, Jenny Schmidgall (A), Kelli Stack, Karen Thatcher, Jinelle Zaugg.

Article Credit: Hockey Canada