Women’s Worlds Day 1 Recap: Taylor Heise’s five assists pace Team USA in blowout win

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Aug 26, 2022, 11:10 EDTUpdated: Aug 27, 2022, 01:43 EDT
Women’s Worlds Day 1 Recap: Taylor Heise’s five assists pace Team USA in blowout win

Team USA got off to a roaring start at the 2022 IIHF Women’s World Championship with a 10–0 victory over Team Japan on Thursday.

Forward Taylor Heise set up half of the goals for the Americans and finished the contest with a plus-five rating. The 22-year-old from Lake City, Minnesota was named Team USA’s player of the game.

Check out this fantastic assist by Heise late in the second period to set up Alex Carpenter’s first of two goals in the game:

Sheesh. That’s a backhand saucer pass through three Team Japan defenders.

Team USA starting goaltender Nicole Hensley recorded the shutout for her team on Thursday, stopping all six shots she faced through the full 60 minutes of action.

At the other end, Team Japan netminder Miyuu Masuhara performed relatively well in relief of starter Akane Konishi, making 30 saves on 33 shots. The Americans peppered their opponents with 62 shots in the game.

We singled out forward Akane Shiga as a player to watch for Team Japan in our tournament preview, and the skilled 21-year-old was the only member of her team to record multiple shots in the game. Keep an eye out for Shiga as Team Japan faces Team Switzerland on Friday.

Carpenter was the only Team USA player to score twice in Thursday’s contest. Eight other players found the back of the net: Kelly Pannek, Rory Guilday, Caroline Harvey, Hayley Scamurra, Lacey Eden, Hannah Bilka, Abby Roque, and Amanda Kessel.

Roque, who became the first Indigenous woman to play for Team USA at the Olympics earlier this year, showed why she could become a breakout start at this year’s Worlds with her goal on Thursday. What a deflection!

Team USA will return to action on Saturday for what should be an excellent game against Group A opponent Team Finland.

Snap shots

  • Team Sweden forward Hanna Olsson lived up to her sky-high potential in Thursday’s game against Team Denmark, scoring a hat trick to propel the Swedes to a 5–2 victory. Olsson, 23, sat out the entire 2020–21 Swedish League season with a knee injury but showed no signs of rust in the tournament opener, firing a team-high five shots on goal in 15:40. Here are the highlights from the game:
  • After Sarah Nurse and Marie-Philip Poulin (surprise, surprise) scored Team Canada’s first two goals against Team Finland, none other than Meaghan Mikkelson tallied the insurance goal for the Canadians in the eventual 3–1 win. Mikkelson, 37, is making a career comeback at the 2022 Worlds, having not represented Canada at a major tournament since the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea.
  • How about a tournament-opening win for Team Hungary? After winning just one game (against Team Denmark) at the 2021 Worlds, the Hungarians have already matched that output this year after a 4–2 victory over Team Germany on Thursday. Franciska Kiss-Simon led the way with a pair of goals for Team Hungary in the contest.

Day 1 Results

Team Japan 0, Team USA 10

Team Germany 2, Team Hungary 4

Team Finland 1, Team Canada 4

Team Denmark 2, Team Sweden 5

Day 2 Schedule

Team Switzerland vs. Team Japan — 12:30 p.m. ET (available on TSN)

Team Hungary vs. Team Czechia — 1:00 p.m. ET

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