Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho), Kelli Stack (Brooklyn Heights, Ohio) and Megan Bozek (Buffalo Grove, Ill.) each scored during a three-goal second period to spark the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 3-2 victory over Canada Monday night at Air Canada Centre in Toronto. The contest was the team’s final outing before the 2014 Olympic Winter Games begin Feb. 8 in Sochi, Russia.
After a scoreless opening frame that saw quality chances by both teams, the Americans were able to strike for back-to-back goals in a 51-second span early in the second period. Knight made it 1-0 when she drove hard to the net and redirected a Stack centering pass over Team Canada goaltender Genevieve Lacasse’s leg at 2:32. Then, with the U.S. on the power play, Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) beat a Canadian defender off the wall and dished the puck to Stack at the edge of the crease. Stack gathered the puck, deked and scored at 3:23to increase Team USA’s advantage to 2-0.
Bozek pushed the U.S. lead to 3-0 with a power-play marker of her own with 16:54 gone in the middle stanza. After Stack won an offensive-zone faceoff, Bozek sent a slap-shot from the point through traffic and under Lacasse’s glove.
Natalie Spooner scored on a two-on-one late in the second frame before Brianne Jenner connected on a shorthanded rush to cut the U.S. lead to 3-2 early in the third, but the Americans held onto the one-goal edge thanks to several tremendous stops by goaltender Molly Schaus (Natick, Mass.).
Schaus finished with 25 saves in the contest.
Team USA will next play Feb. 8 against Finland in the squad’s first contest at the 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
