Women’s Worlds: Team USA boasts balanced attack in big Easter weekend win

Mike Gould
Mike Gould
Apr 9, 2023, 23:33 EDT
Women’s Worlds: Team USA boasts balanced attack in big Easter weekend win
Credit: Dan Hamilton-USA TODAY Sports

Nine of the 10 competing national teams took part in this weekend’s slate of games at the 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship.

All but Team Switzerland hit the ice at the CAA Centre in Brampton, Ont. on Saturday or Easter Sunday, with the Swedes actually playing on both.

We’ll talk about all five games in this weekend roundup, starting with Team USA’s convincing 6–2 victory over Team Czechia on Sunday afternoon.

Six different Team USA players scored goals in the entertaining duel, which saw the Americans only narrowly outshoot the Czechs by a 29–24 margin.

In the first period, Team USA controlled the shots 17–5 but briefly trailed 2–1 and had to battle back to tie the game before the intermission. Oddly enough, the Czechs outshot Team USA 19–12 over the final two periods but were outscored 4–0 over that span.

Only one player on either team enjoyed a multi-point outing on Sunday: Team USA defender Caroline Harvey, who has now posted exactly two points in each of her first three games at the 2023 Worlds.

Harvey assisted on Hayley Scamurra’s game-tying marker in the first period before picking up the primary helper on Hilary Knight’s insurance tally in the third. Knight’s goal was her second as the new Captain America.

Megan Keller, Lacey Eden, Tessa Janecke, and Abby Roque also found the back of the net in the decisive victory for Team USA, which improved to a perfect 3–0–0–0 leading up to its upcoming clash with Team Canada on Monday.

On the other side, Denisa Krizova and Sara Cajanova made it interesting for Team Czechia in the first period. Cajanova scored on the Czechs’ third shot of the game to put the USA in a 2–1 hole — only the second deficit of the tournament for the Americans thus far.

Now sitting at 0–1–0–2 through three games, Team Czechia will go for its first regulation win of the round-robin stage against Team Switzerland on Tuesday.

Quick hits

  • After tripling up Team Hungary by a 6–2 score on Saturday, Team Sweden showed a little fatigue in a demoralizing 4–2 setback against Team Finland on Easter Sunday. Although the Finns outshot their Nordic counterparts 38–15 in the game, they fell behind 2–0 by the second intermission; however, their rested legs proved too much for the Swedes to handle in the third, with Ronja Savolainen scoring twice in the come-from-behind victory.
  • Sarah Fillier tallied twice in a clinical 5–0 win for Team Canada over Team Japan on Saturday. The Canadians held their opponents to just one shot in the first period (they took 26 of their own) before easing off the rest of the way … by which we mean they controlled the shots 34–10 over the final 40 minutes. Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse, and Natalie Spooner also scored in what was ultimately an 11-save shutout effort for Emerance Maschmeyer.
  • Team France, promoted from Division I since the 2022 Worlds, actually outshot Team Germany in their head-to-head clash on Sunday, but it was the Germans who scored once in all three periods en route to a 3–0 win. Sandra Abstreiter stopped all 28 French forays she faced in the evening clash, which saw Celina Haider net the winner off a seeing-eye shot at the 15:49 mark of the opening frame. Nicola Eisenschmid made it 2–0 in the second period before assisting on Katarina Jobst-Smith’s tally in the third.

Saturday’s results

Team Sweden 6, Team Hungary 2

Team Japan 0, Team Canada 5

Sunday’s results

Team Finland 4, Team Sweden 2

Team USA 6, Team Czechia 2

Team Germany 3, Team France 0

Monday’s games

Team Hungary vs. Team Finland — 11:00 a.m. ET

Team Switzerland vs. Team Japan — 3:00 p.m. ET

Team Canada vs. Team USA — 7:00 p.m. ET

All games at CAA Centre in Brampton, Ont.

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