Emily Clark (Saskatoon, Sask.) scored at even strength, on the power play and shorthanded to lead Canada’s National Women’s Team to a 5-3 win over the United States on Sunday and a sweep of their two-game series.
Melodie Daoust (Valleyfield, Que.) and Natalie Spooner (Scarborough, Ont.) also found the back of the net for the Canadians, while Emerance Maschmeyer (Bruderheim, Alta.) made 31 saves.
Canada started fast for the second time in as many games, racing out to a 3-0 lead within the first 11 minutes.
Clark got the scoring started just before the six-minute mark, taking the puck off an American in the neutral zone before squeezing a backhand through U.S. netminder Kaitlin Burt.
Just 29 seconds later it was Daoust doing the deed, throwing a puck towards the net that hit an American stick and found its way past Burt, and Spooner cleaned up a Blayre Turnbull (Stellarton, N.S.) rebound at 10:17 for a 3-0 advantage.
That was all for scoring through the first 40 minutes; Maschmeyer stopped all 13 shots she faced in a scoreless second period, while Burt was perfect on nine chances.
The Americans finally got on the board early in the third period when Kendall Coyne Schofield tipped in a shot from Cayla Barnes, but Clark buried a rebound off a Claire Thompson (Toronto, Ont.) point shot to restore the three-goal advantage just three minutes later.
The U.S. made it interesting when Dani Cameranesi and Kelly Pannek counted power-play goals two minutes apart and earned another man advantage, but Clark forced a turnover at the Canadian blue-line and fought off a backcheck before stepping around a charging Burt and finishing her hat trick into an unguarded net.
The Canadians have won four of their last five against the Americans dating back to the final two games of the Rivalry Series last February.
The teams will meet next on Dec. 14 when the 2019-20 edition of the Rivalry Series faces off in Hartford, Conn., with the first Canadian stop in the five-game set coming Dec, 17 in Moncton, N.B.
Quotes:
“Getting rewarded for doing the little things is a great feeling. If you look at all three goals, they came off broken-up plays or traffic in front of the net, but all of them are credit to everyone. The first one was a turnover created by the line before me, the second was net-front traffic and a shot from the point on the power play, then Poulin did most of the work and teed up the breakaway. Obviously you’re confident when you get rewarded, but as a team the confidence is contagious with how we won and the character we showed.”
— Clark on scoring a hat trick
“A lot of this is a process; we’re not too stressed either way with the wins and losses but [the point is] as long as we’re getting better on a consistent basis. I think the first period today was the best period of the six that we played, so there’s a lot that comes from that period we can build on.”
“We as coaches talked at our meals or back at the hotel, we were so impressed with the (Penguins) organization how they treated us on a daily basis, from security guards to how they all helped us around the dressing room. You can tell the pride they have to be part of this organization and it exudes on a daily basis.”
— Team Canada head coach Troy Ryan (Spryfield, N.S.) on the camp set-up and support
