How Canada defeated the U.S. to capture the gold medal at Women's Worlds

U.S. coach John Wroblewski put Laila Edwards, Kirsten Simms and Taylor Heise on the same line during the semifinals against Finland. Since then, Edwards has scored four goals, including a hat trick last night.

Edwards, who made history as the first Black woman to play for the senior U.S. women's hockey team in November 2023, is 6-foot-1 with a huge shot and elite vision.

The first period ends tied 1-1, with a USA penalty kill. Canada with a very clear edge in shots, 13-6 so far.

A lot of speed and pace so far, but the big question is whether the U.S. can answer what Canada is bringing so far.

Pannek takes a tripping penalty and Canada heads to the power play. Canada has only been 1-for-16 on the power play which is uncharacteristically low. Should USA want to test that? Absolutely not.

And just like that, we have a tie game. Laila Edwards has been the breakout star of this tournament for USA and now earns her sixth goal of the tournament on a delayed penalty.

Talk about a response goal.

Canada is leading puck possession so far and has tested Aerin Frankel, but she has responded really well for USA so far.

Desbiens has a quality save of her own now that USA has mustered up a pair of scoring chances.

The game is underway and let’s hope its as tight and dramatic as their preliminary matchup. No matter how tilted games tend to be in this tournament for both USA and Canada, everything always tightens up when these two meet. This game will likely be no different.

The key for USA will be maintaining their discipline, similar to their preliminary matchup just days ago. For Canada, it’s about taking advantage of any mistakes and counter-attacking.

It’s fair to assume this game will be close. Games between the U.S. and Canada typically are. But this year, both starting goalies have been unbelievable and enter the game with sub-1 goals against averages.

No, that’s not a typo.

Ann-Renée Desbiens ranks first in the tournament with a .973 save percentage and 0.49 goals against average. Aerin Frankel — who backstopped the Americans to gold last year — isn’t far behind with .961 save percentage and a 0.59 GAA. Frankel’s four shutouts leads the tournament.

Whichever team can get out to a lead early is going to feel good if their starter can keep playing to that level.

A major storyline heading into the gold medal game is Marie-Philip Poulin. She came into the tournament with a lower-body injury, and hadn’t played a game since March 8 in the PWHL. She’s played every game for Canada on the top line with Sarah Fillier and Brianne Jenner, but hasn’t scored and only has two assists through six games.

“She will find a way to impact the game one way or another. And if her legs are not where they once were, for this event, I think she'll find a way to impact the game. And some of the plays she's making with Fillier are magical and I think they'll find a way.

Special teams are always critical in championship games, particularly when Canada and the U.S. are playing — things get chippy and there’s a lot of time either killing a penalty of trying to score with a player advantage. At last year’s world championship, it was a string of successful power plays — including a five-on-three — that gave Team USA the edge.

At this year’s tournament, the Americans have the second-best power play (25 percent), while Canada has only scored one goal on the advantage and is clicking at a six percent “success” rate. Now, Canada does have the second-best penalty kill (94.12 percent) in the tournament and the U.S. is not far behind in fourth (88.89 percent).

Canada’s head coach Troy Ryan said he’s not overly concerned about the “small sample” size on the power play.

“As long as it’s trending in the right direction, as long as you’re not losing momentum from it, I don’t stress too much,” he said. “You can see the movement now, like (Marie-Philip Poulin) has taken a little bit more control of getting switches and getting on her one-time side. We made a small adjustment by putting Fast in there … She’s playing very confident and the speed that she brings to that unit gives you a little jolt.”

Team USA and Team Canada will have now faced off for gold at 22 of 23 women’s world championships since 1990 — when the IIHF first sanctioned the event — including at last year’s tournament, which the United States won 6-3. That American gold medal was won on Canadian soil, in Brampton, Ontario.

Not that anyone on Team Canada has forgotten.

“Obviously, I remember last year,” said Canada’s No. 1 goalie Ann-Renée Desbiens. “And we want this story to be different this year.”

Forwards (13): Laura Stacey, Sarah Fillier, Brianne Jenner, Sarah Nurse, Natalie Spooner, Emily Clark, Emma Maltais, Marie-Philip Poulin, Blayre Turnbull, Kristin O'Neill, Jamie Lee Rattray, Julia Gosling, Danielle Serdachny

Defenders (7): Jocelyne Larocque, Renata Fast, Ella Shelton, Ashton Bell, Erin Ambrose, Jaime Bourbonnais, Nicole Gosling

Goalies (3): Ann-Renée Desbiens, Emerance Maschmeyer, Kristen Campbell

Read more here.

Forwards (15): Hilary Knight, Kendall Coyne Schofield, Alex Carpenter, Hayley Scamurra, Kelly Pannek, Taylor Heise, Abbey Murphy, Hannah Bilka, Grace Zumwinkle, Lacey Eden, Britta Curl, Kirsten Simms, Laila Edwards, Joy Dunne, Tessa Janecke

Defenders (7): Megan Keller, Caroline Harvey, Savannah Harmon, Cayla Barnes, Rory Guilday, Haley Winn, Sydney Morrow

Goalies (3): Aerin Frankel, Nicole Hensley, Gwyneth Philips

Read more here.

Below are the projected lines for Team USA in the gold medal game:

Team USA defeated Canada 1-0 in overtime in the final preliminary round game for each team at the 2024 IIHF Women’s World Championship on Monday night.

The latest edition of the heated Canada-USA rivalry delivered again this time in a fast-paced, physical game that, of course, needed extra time to be decided.

Kirsten Simms scored the game-winning goal — her first goal and point of the tournament — with 1:22 left in overtime. Simms was the leading scorer in the NCAA this season with 75 points in 39 games, and was a top-three finalist for the Patty Kazmaier Award, which is given to the top player in women’s college hockey. The 19-year-old is making her women’s world championship debut.

“It’s an insane moment that I still can’t put into words,” Simms said. “I kind of blacked out in the moment, didn’t really know what was going on or if it actually happened. But obviously it was a super exciting moment and (I’m) super pumped that we pulled off the win.”

“It’s great whenever you can get a first and when it can be a first in overtime in such a big game in front of your home arena, it’s wonderful,” said American captain Hilary Knight. “I hope it’s the first of many for her and all the other young players that are joining our squad for the first time at this world championships, getting a lot of experience.”

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