SEATTLE, Wash. – Canada’s National Women’s Team dropped the final game of the first leg of the Rivalry Series on Sunday, falling 4-2 to the United States in front of 14,551 fans in Seattle.
The Rivalry Series resumes next month with two games in the U.S., Dec. 15 in Henderson, Nev., and Dec. 19 in Los Angeles, Calif.
Quotes:
“A lot of times we talk about a two-minute hockey philosophy. When you’re letting them score after beating you in back-to-back games and let them score in the first two minutes of the game, that keeps their momentum rolling and I think they benefitted from that. For all three games we lost the special teams battle. If you’re not scoring on the power play, or at least preventing them from scoring, you’re not winning hockey games at this level.”
- Head coach Troy Ryan (Spryfield, N.S.) on his assessment after three games
“I think for our group it’s building that chemistry with each other again. Coming off a year we just had [where] we were together all the time, now we are kind of separate then coming back together it’s continuing to build that chemistry as we move forward. These are evaluation games for us, we have a lot of new people, new combinations, new concepts and game plans we’re trying to integrate because we had so much success. It’s hard to stay on top, we want to continue to raise the bar, we don’t want to be stagnant and doing what we’re doing. By us trying new things, we’re taking risks out there. It didn’t go our way today but I’m sure it’s going to go our way soon.”
- Nurse on building chemistry and momentum moving forward through the series
“After losing three games it’s easy to feel exactly how the team is feeling – a bit disappointed. I want and expect more of myself to help us get the win, but with that being said it was nice to get an opportunity to play with Blayre [Turnbull] and Clarky (Emily Clark), and I thought early on we created chances and we tried to be hard to play against. I think it’s something I’m trying to focus on and every single second I get on the ice, no matter how many times it is, to be the hardest possible player to play against. Right now, it feels like it’s clicking a little bit better and I’m excited about that, but definitely still a lot of work to do.”
- Laura Stacey (Kleinburg, Ont./PWHPA) on her style of play and contributing to team success
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