LAVAL, Que. – Overcoming a 0-3 deficit in a best-of-7 hockey series is a commendable feat, no matter what. The players of Canada’s women’s team will be able to boast of having achieved a feat against their biggest rivals.
Canada completed a spectacular comeback in their Rivalry Series encounter with the United States with a 5-0 victory in Game 7 on Wednesday night in front of 5,639 spectators at Place Bell.
A burst of four goals in the second period, including two by Blayre Turnbull in the space of 32 seconds halfway through the engagement, took the American team out of the game.
This offensive push followed an unconvincing first period from the Canadians. Captain Marie-Philip Poulin recognized him after the game.
“I think we weren’t super happy with our start to the game. I don’t think that’s the effort we usually give. We had to come together as a team. »
The star of the game was Laura Stacey, who assisted in both of Turnbull’s goals and the first of the matchup by defender Ella Shelton late in the first period.
“I think she cherishes the type of player she is,” head coach Troy Ryan said of Stacey.
“I think she’s realized that she’s the kind of power forward who can play at both ends of the rink. Today (Wednesday) in some plays she made, she looked like a top offensive player. But she does it without sacrificing the ruggedness of the game and her aggressive style,” added Ryan.
Poulin, with her 98th career with the senior national team, and Victoria Bach also scored for Canada, who did all that damage with just 18 shots on goaltenders Nicole Hensley and Maddie Rooney.
Called to protect the net for Team Canada in a second straight game, Ann-Renée Desbiens stopped 25 pucks for her sixth career shutout with Team Canada and her first against the United States.
“It feels good,” Desbiens said of the shutout, “but definitely winning is the most important thing. We really wanted to win the trophy on Canadian soil, in Quebec. »
This series of seven meetings, which served as preparation for the World Championship, began in November 2022 with three victories for the Americans in the northwest of the continent.
Canada had restored luster to the series by signing two wins, in Nevada and Los Angeles in mid-December, before winning 5-1 Monday in Trois-Rivières.
According to Stacey, such a comeback could have positive repercussions for the Canadians in view of the world tournament next April in Brampton, Ont.
“We are constantly growing as a team and I think this is a really important triumph for us, mentally and emotionally. To be able to show resilience, get up, keep pushing and move forward and focus on the present day and the present game, it’s something very big, ”described the Ontario forward.
Canada bottled up
The start of the game on Wednesday night was unlike Monday’s, as a whole and also, more specifically, for the Canadian team.
First, there was the energy coming from the stands of Place Bell, much less felt than that which had emanated from the stands of the Colisée Vidéotron 48 hours earlier.
As for the Canadian hockey players, they had much more difficulty in imposing themselves in the first period, and even leaving their territory, bottled up by a forecheck performed brilliantly by the Americans.
Despite this, the latter were not able to seriously threaten the fortress of Desbiens and score the first goal, often so important.
That first goal came from Canada and Shelton with just under three minutes left.
Positioned at the mouth of the net, the Canadian defender managed to lodge the puck behind Hensley, extended at full length, on her second attempt.
Backfire
The Canadians doubled their lead with their first shot of the middle period.
After receiving an accurate pass from Jamie Lee Rattray, Poulin fired a perfect wrist shot from the slot that crept past Hensley’s mitt at 3:41. It was his 35th goal in 82 career games against the United States.
Two Canadian shots later, the score was 4-0. Turnbull scored his first of the game at 10:26 by deflecting a Stacey shot on the power play.
Thirty-two seconds later, Turnbull welcomed Rooney’s entry into the game in relief at Hensley by completing another maneuver from Stacey, despite Amanda Kessel at his side.
Before the end of the engagement, Bach made it 5-0 thanks to a backhand shot in the upper part, on a breakaway.
It only remained for the Canadians to pass the last 20 minutes to concretize the kind of comebacks out of the ordinary. Which they did with no problem.