KAMLOOPS, British Columbia – Goaltender Nicole Hensley (Lakewood, Colo.) stopped all 16 shots she faced and Monique Lamoureux (Grand Forks, N.D.) and Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho) each netted a pair of goals as the U.S. Women’s National Team defeated Russia, 8-0, in its final preliminary-round game at the 2016 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship.
With the win, Team USA improved to 3-0-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) and secured the top seed in Group A, earning a quarterfinal-round bye. The U.S. will play in its semifinal matchup at 6 p.m. ET Sunday (April 3).
“We played a solid game today and everyone contributed, including our goaltender in her first game with the national team,” said Ken Klee, head coach of the 2016 U.S. Women’s National Team. “We’re happy to be advancing to the semifinals and we’ll use the time between now and Sunday to refocus and prepare for our opponent.”
The U.S. opened the scoring at 5:07 when Annie Pankowski (Laguna Hills, Calif.) forced a turnover in the U.S. zone and found Kendall Coyne (Palos Heights, Ill.), who skated around two Russian players and scored between Maria Sorokina’s pads.
About a minute and a half later, Lamoureux doubled the lead when she buried a wraparound attempt, spurring Russia to make a goaltender change and put Nadezhda Morozova in net.
As a Russian penalty expired, Megan Keller (Farmington, Mich.) made it 3-0 with a shot from the right circle off a feed from Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass) at 14:19.
Team USA’s best chance of the second period came with six minutes remaining as Knight collected a loose puck in Russia’s crease, but Morozova made the save.
The third period began with four-on-four play after both teams took penalties in the final minute of the second frame.
Lamoureux scored her second of the night when she beat a defenseman, skated in on net and wrapped the puck around Morozova’s left pad at 4:54, about a minute into a U.S. power play. Less than two minutes later, a tap-in by Shiann Darkangelo (Brighton, Mich.) made it 5-0.
At 9:10, Knight snapped a quick shot into the upper right corner of the net from the high slot while surrounded by three Russian players.
Knight and Pankowski each added power-play markers in the final four minutes of the game to account for the 8-0 final.
NOTES: The U.S. outshot Russia, 39-16. For complete game statistics, click here … Monique Lamoureux was named the U.S. Player of the Game … Reagan Carey (Colorado Springs, Colo.), USA Hockey’s director of women’s hockey, is the general manager of the 2016 U.S. Women’s National Team. Ken Klee (Denver, Colo.) is head coach of the 2016 U.S. Women’s National Team, and Brett Strot (Tampa, Fla.) and Chris Tamer (Dexter, Mich.) are assistant coaches … The U.S. is the defending champion and has played Canada in the gold medal game in all 16 of the previous events, capturing the event’s top prize a total of six times (2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015), including five of the last six tournaments.
