CALGARY, Alberta – Twelve different players tallied at least one point as the U.S. Women’s Under-18 Select Team earned a 6-2 victory over Canada here tonight in the second game of the 2016 Under-18 Series at the Markin MacPhail Centre in Calgary, Alberta.
“Our offense was clicking and we had a strong overall game tonight,” said Joel Johnson, head coach of the 2016 U.S. Women’s Under-18 Select Team. “Everyone played a significant role in the win and I was proud of how we competed.”
Team USA earned a 1-0 lead just 68 seconds into the contest when Taylor Wente (Plymouth, Mich) picked up the loose puck during a net-front scramble and flipped a shot past goaltender Jaimie Rainville. Just 3:55 later, Britta Curl (Bismarck, N.D.) connected on a two-on-one rush with Gabrielle Hughes’ (Lino Lakes, Minn.), whose one-timer found the back of the net to double the U.S. lead. Clair DeGeorge (Anchorage, Alaska) netted a rebound on the power play with 4:34 remaining in the opening period to give Team USA a 3-0 advantage before Canada’s Daryl Watts scored a final-minute marker to make the score 3-1 heading into the first intermission.
Maureen Murphy (Buffalo, N.Y.) gave the U.S. a brief 4-1 lead at 10:05 of the middle frame before Canada responded with a goal from Brenne Petter 51 seconds later to make the score 4-2.
Team USA regained a three-goal advantage when Taylor Heise (Lake City, Minn.) fired a wrist shot from the slot past Rainville with 3:06 left in the period.
Catherine Skaja (New Prauge, Minn.) added a third-period goal to make the final 6-2.
Lindsay Reed (New Vernon, N.J.) stopped 18 shots for the U.S. while earning the victory.
The U.S. and Canada meet each other in the final game of the 2016 Under-18 Series on Sunday (Aug. 21) at 12 p.m. ET.
NOTES: The U.S. Women’s Under-18 Select Team was chosen from the USA Hockey Women’s National Festival that took place Aug. 8-12 in Lake Placid, New York … The Under-18 Series has been held annually since 2007 … All games from the series are being streamed live and are available at hockeycanada.ca … Follow @USAHockeyScores on Twitter for live scoring updates with the #U18Series hashtag …
