2014-15 National Women's Development Team

YELLOW BEATS BLUE FOR FIRST DEVELOPMENT TEAM CAMP WIN

JASON LA ROSE

CALGARY, Alta. – Sarah Nurse (Hamilton, Ont./University of Wisconsin, WCHA) scored the game-winning goal in the first minute of the second period, helping Yellow past Blue 3-1 on Tuesday night in the first intrasquad game at Canada’s National Women’s Development Team selection camp.

Yellow held a 29-23 advantage in shots on goal and spent just two minutes in the penalty box to take the opener of the three-game intrasquad series at WinSport’s Markin MacPhail Centre.

Sarah Lefort (Ormstown, Que./Boston University, HE) added a goal and an assist, Meghan Dufault (Winnipeg, Man./University of North Dakota, WCHA) also scored, and Karly Heffernan (Sherwood Park, Alta./Pursuit of Excellence, Midget AAA) chipped in with two helpers for Yellow.

Victoria Bach (Milton, Ont./Mississauga, PWHL) was the only Blue skater to find the back of the net.

Yellow stuck early to take the lead; Dufault took a stretch pass from Lefort before making a pretty move on the breakaway, flipping a backhand over an outstretched Ali Binnington (Oakville, Ont./Rochester Institute of Technology, CHA) just 6:52 in.

That was the lone goal in an evenly-matched first period that saw Blue hold a slight 9-8 advantage in shots on goal.

Nurse doubled the lead 47 seconds after the puck dropped to start the second period, gathering in the puck off a won face-off by Heffernan and beating Binnington from the top of the circle.

Bach got Blue back within a goal less than four minutes later, following up on a two-on-one and knocking a rebound past Emerance Maschmeyer (Bruderheim, Alta./Harvard University, ECAC) to make it a 2-1 game.

Lefort added a little insurance for Yellow and rounded out the scoring at 6:20 of the third period, going to the net to finish a feed from Heffernan.

Neither team could score with the man advantage, and neither team had many opportunities; Yellow finished goalless in four chances, while Blue failed to score on its lone power play.

Both teams shared the goaltending duties; Maschmeyer gave up one goal on 13 shots for Yellow before giving way to Jaimie Leonoff (Montreal, Que./Yale University, ECAC), who was perfect on 10 chances, while Binnington stopped 12 of 14 before being replaced by Ann-Renée Desbiens (La Malbaie, Que./University of Wisconsin, WCHA), who went 14-for-15.

The teams are back at it for the middle contest of the three-game set on Friday (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT), before wrapping up camp on Saturday night (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT).