Sarnia, Ontario. – Marie-Philip Poulin scored a goal in a shootout as Canada finally got into the win column in the women’s hockey rivalry series with a 3-2 win over the United States on Saturday at Progressive Auto Sales Arena in Sarnia, Ont.
The USA jumped out to a 1-0 lead when Megan Keller scored a short-handed goal at 8:19 of the second period. The USA took a 2-0 lead when Alex Carpenter scored at 4:46 of the third period.
Danielle Srdachny put Canada back on target with a goal at 10:06, and Ella Shelton scored the equalizer at 12:39.
In extra time, both the USA’s Abby Murphy (unsportsmanlike conduct) and Pauline (roughing) were sent off for minor penalties as both teams pushed for the winner.
Canada outshot the United States 26-24, going 0-for-5 on the power play. The USA went 0-for-2 on the power play.
“Our team had a nice response tonight. We have to give a lot of credit to Anne Rennie (Debians goalkeeper) because she kept us in the game and gave us a chance to come back,” Canadian coach Troy Ryan said.
“I thought we played a more complete game on Thursday, but we couldn’t find a way to win that game, and today we were able to fight back. Our players knew that if we scored one (goal) we would be back on top.” So it was a great way to end this part of the rivalry series.”
Debians said this was a “team win” and that her teammates showed a lot of character.
He added: “This team has a lot of character and we showed that today. It was easy to give up when we were 2-0 down in the series, but it was important for us to get the win against us.” “Canadian fans,” Debians said.
“We gave it our all and kept fighting to create chances late in the game. We were able to score two big goals in the third period, and then (Poulin) scored another important winning goal in a big moment for us.”
The United States won the first game of the series 3-1, took the second 5-2, and won the third, played on Thursday, 3-2.
“The game (Saturday) was a back-and-forth contest,” USA coach John Froblowski said. “It was a physical match and a classic USA-Canada match.”
The United States opened the rivalry series last month with a 3-1 win in Tempe, Arizona, and 5-2 in Los Angeles.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2023.
