Canada's future goaltending in good hands with Maschmeyer
KAMLOOPS Talk about your mixed emotions for Emerance Maschmeyer.
A sellout crowd of 5,850 at the Sandman Centre nearly blew the roof off the building with their applause Monday night when it was announced that Maschmeyer was Team Canada’s player of the game as well as the top goaltender for the IIHF women’s hockey world championship tournament.
That episode came moments after Alex Carpenter had beaten Maschmeyer in a wild scramble at 12:30 of overtime to give the Americans a 1-0 victory and their third straight world title. It was their sixth crown in seven tries.
Canada has won four straight Olympic gold medals, and, if we’ve learned anything out of this tournament, it is that Canada’s goaltending is in capable hands heading toward the Pyeongchang 2018 Games with Maschmeyer, a Harvard product.
Shannon Szabados, 29, who has backstopped Canada to their last two Olympic golds, has been focused on playing men’s minor pro the past two seasons. It’ll be interesting to see her status for the Pyeongchang Games.
“I’m happy she’s Canadian,” veteran national team winger Meghan Agosta said of Maschmeyer, 21, a Bruderheim, Alta. native, who made 33 stops on Sunday night.
“She’s an unbelievable goaltender. She has a bright future in this program. She kept us in the game and she gave us a chance.”
Maschmeyer, who at Kamloops was undoubtedly playing in front of many folks who had watched her older brother Bronson, 24, man the blue-line for three seasons there with the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, said of the crowd: “The fans were amazing. They kept us in the game the whole time. When we were down (emotionally), they were there to pick us back up.”
The building did go virtually silent in a second when Carpenter jumped on a loose puck in the crease and poked it home to end the game midway through the 20-minute extra session. The initial point shot from Megan Bozek seemed to deflect off something before hitting the far post and landing behind Maschmeyer.
The Canadians had just killed off a minor penalty before the goal. Canada had two powerplay chances in the overtime, but couldn’t cash in.
Canada went 0-for-6 on the power play on the night. Canada had success with the extra player during the tournament, working at a 26 per cent (6-for-23) clip in their five games. The Finns were the only squad in the eight-team event with a better power-play success rate.
The Americans led the penalty kill parade, finishing at 93 per cent (13-for-14) for the tournament.
The U.S. team beat the Canadians 3-1 in preliminary round action on the opening night of the tournament on March 28. Maschmeyer made 35 saves that night.
There have been 17 world championship tournaments since the inaugural event in 1990. Canada and the U.S. have met in the final of every one.