”It was an awesome hockey game,” said Katey Stone, head coach for Team USA and also the head women’s ice hockey coach at Harvard University. “Both teams and both goaltenders played great - there was a small margin between the two teams today and we’re extremely happy that we came out on top.”

 The United States capitalized first, converting on its first power-play opportunity to take an early 1-0 lead. Natalie Darwitz took a pass from Angela Ruggiero and walked it in from the left faceoff circle to beat Canadian netminder Charline Labonte. Just over two minutes later during another U.S. power play, Canada used a shorthanded breakaway goal from Jayna Hefford to tie the score at 1-1.

 The teams again traded goals in the middle frame, as the score increased to 2-2. In the 10-minute 4-on-4 sudden-death overtime session, Team USA killed off its 20th straight power play in the tournament and Vetter made eight saves in net to force a shootout.

After all three first-round shooters from each team were stopped, the shootout went to single-player rounds, where USA’s McKenzie potted the winner in round four.

credits: USA Hockey

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