2010-11 National Women's Team

AMERICANS WIN OLYMPIC GOLD MEDAL REMATCH IN SHOOTOUT

by Amanda Guy

St. John's, N.L.  - Hilary Knight of the United States scored the only goal in the shootout, edging out the Canadians 3-2 at the Mile One Centre on the opening day of the 4 Nations Cup.

The Americans both closed and open the scoring at Tuesday night's game, as just 11 seconds into the first period, American Jenny Potter scored after a dump-in that bounced the puck off the boards in front of a wide open net. Jocelyne Lamoureux  assisted the goal. There were three penalties in the first period, with the United States sent to the box once and Canada serving two. Canada pestered and peppered U.S. goaltender Jessie Vetter in the final seconds of the period, but they came up empty-handed by the intermission.

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The second period started with Canada's golden goal scorer, Marie-Philip Poulin (Beauceville, Que.), tipping one past Vetter at 2:07 on the power play, with help from Caroline Ouellette (Montreal, Que.) and Tessa Bonhomme (Sudbury, Ont.).

Meghan Duggan gave the United States the lead once more at 10:18, taking a feed from Caitlin Cahow.  At 12:36 in the period, with nine seconds left on the power play, Jocelyne Larocque (Ste. Anne, Manitoba) and Haley Irwin (Thunder Bay, Ont.) assisted Meaghan Mikkelson (Edmonton, Alta.) to make it even at two goals apiece. Team U.S.A. received four penalties, while officials handed Canada two offences. Before the second was up, American netminder Jessie Vetter mad some huge saves, denying a couple of Canadian breakaways.

The third period was action-packed but scoreless, sending the Olympic gold medal rematch into sudden victory four-on-four overtime. The Canadians spent most of OT in the offensive zone, but once again they couldn't put the puck past Vetter.

Canada's Poulin hit the post with in the shootout, while Megan Agosta (Ruthven, Ont.) and Jennifer Wakefield (Pickering, Ont.) were both denied by Vetter. Hilary Knight scored on Shannon Szabados (Edmonton, Alta.) for the win.

There was no surprise for Team U.S.A.'s player of the game, with Vetter receiving the honour after stopping 34 shots in regulation. Mikkelson was named player of the game for Canada.

Canada's National Women's Team travels to Clarenville on Wednesday to take on Sweden at 7 p.m. NT.

Penalties:
   00:00 CAN 12 Meaghan Mikkelson (Roughing)
   00:00 CAN 2 Meghan Agosta (Tripping)
   00:00 USA 8 Caitlin Cahow ()

Penalties:
   00:00 CAN 18 Bobbi Jo Slusar (Tripping)
   00:00 USA 12 Jenny Potter (Holding)
   06:45 USA 22 Kacey Bellamy (Roughing)
   10:45 USA 8 Caitlin Cahow (Cross Checking)
   16:23 CAN 7 Cherie Piper (Interference)
   16:41 USA 7 Monique Lamoureux (Slashing)

Penalties:
   01:42 CAN 22 Hayley Wickenheiser (Cross Checking)
   11:08 USA 7 Monique Lamoureux (Bodychecking)