KAMLOOPS, British Columbia – Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho) tallied her third goal of the tournament and Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson (Grand Forks, N.D.) added the game-winning goal to lead the U.S. Women’s National Team to a 2-1 comeback win against Finland in its second game of the 2016 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship.
“We grinded it out this afternoon on a short turnaround,” said Ken Klee, head coach of the 2016 U.S. Women’s National Team. “We put a lot of pucks on net and did enough to earn another important win.”
At 5:03 of the first period, Finland grabbed a 1-0 lead on a 2-on-1 rush when Riikka Valila slid the puck across the slot to Michelle Karvinen, who beat a sprawling Jessie Vetter (Cottage Grove, Wis.) low on her glove side.
Five minutes later, Kendall Coyne (Palos Heights, Ill.) had a breakaway opportunity, but Finnish goaltender Meeri Raisanen deflected a blocker-side shot to preserve Finland’s early 1-0 advantage.
With :58 left to play in the first period, Knight tipped a Lee Stecklein (Roseville, Minn.) shot from the point past the Finnish netminder to even the score.
The U.S. had multiple scoring chances early in the second stanza, including several net-front scrambles, but the team was unable to convert until 15:09 of the period when Annie Pankowski (Laguna Hills, Calif.) found Lamoureux-Davidson alone in the slot for a wrist shot high on the blocker side to give the U.S. a 2-1 lead.
Just minutes later, Dana Trivigno (Setauket, N.Y.) nearly added to Team USA’s lead when Zoe Hickel (Anchorage, Alaska) found her in the low slot. Trivigno attempted to beat Raisanen between the legs, but the Finnish goaltender made the save.
Team USA outshot Finland, 20-3, in the third period, but was unable to add to its one-goal advantage.
Knight wristed a puck toward the Finnish net from the bottom of the left circle and came close to netting her second goal of the game three minutes into the period. Coyne attempted to corral the rebound, but Raisanen covered up to keep the score at 2-1.
With 6:30 left to play in the contest, Petra Nieminen almost tied the game. She found herself alone in front of the U.S. net, but Vetter made her best save of the night, sliding from left to right to deny Nieminen and seal the 2-1 victory for Team USA.
The U.S., who is 2-0-0-0 (W-OTW-OTL-L) at this year’s event, will continue preliminary-round play at the 2016 IIHF Women’s World Championship when it takes on Russia at 6:30 p.m. ET on Thursday (March 31).
NOTES: The U.S. outshot Finland, 51-7. For complete game statistics, click here … Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson 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, 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.
