Canadians even score with U.S.
Signs of the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, have been coming on fast. The flame that will light the cauldron to mark the start of the Games was lit in Greece on Tuesday.
Last night, in front of a sold-out crowd of 6,298 at Boston University’s Agganis Arena, the United States and Canada had their second of at least seven preOlympics women’s hockey meetings with Team Canada scoring twice in the final 1:47 of the second period to pave the way for a 5-1 victory. It was quick revenge for Team USA’s 5-2 win Sunday in Quebec City.
“It’s a process . . . . (But) we have to look ourselves in the mirror after this game as a team and as individuals and ask ourselves . . . ‘Can we prepare better, can we execute better?’ ” U.S. captain and Danvers native Meghan Duggan said. “I didn’t think we did the little things great tonight.”
It was unusual to see the first two pre-Olympic meetings end so lopsidedly, marking the first time since 2013 in the hotly contested USACanada series that consecutive games were decided by three or more goals.
Team USA carried the play for the first two periods, but trailed 4-1 with the Canadians taking advantage of numerous mistakes, particularly through the neutral zone.
Canada got two goals from Natalie Spooner and a solid outing from former Providence College star Genevieve Lacasse, who made 37 saves.
The Americans were unable to do anything on the power play, going 0-for-9 and allowed Laura Fortino to score shorthanded..
“We were forcing it like crazy,” USA coach Robb Stauber said. “If you could have a magic wand and at least understand why. They’re split-second decisions but when you make split-second decisions that are not in line with our vision then you’ve got to address why those things are happening.”
Spooner scored on the power play from the doorstep and Meghan Agosta buried a giveaway in off the post 1:32 apart late in the second period for a 4-1 lead.
Canadian captain MariePhilip Poulin, a former BU star, made it 5-1 late in the game with a rocket from the left circle past Alex Rigsby, who came on in relief of Nicole Hensley in the USA net at the start of the third.
For all of the success Team USA has had in the IIHF World Championships, winning the last four and seven of the last eight, Olympic gold has eluded the Americans since winning the first Olympic women’s hockey tournament at Nagano in 1998.
“The Olympics is the ultimate goal,” said Duggan. “We’ve wanted to win an Olympic gold medal since we were 4, 5, 6, 7, 10 years old. Obviously, right now it stings a little bit that we came off a loss, but we go back to the drawing board, figure out a couple different things how we can be better, clean up the little things and we move forward.”
The teams will take part in the Four Nations Cup, along with Finland and Sweden, next month in Florida before staging four more head-to-head exhibitions in December.