Canada goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens (35) makes a save against United States' Kendall Coyne Schofield (26) during second period gold medal hockey action at the IIHF Women's World Hockey Championship in Utica, N.Y., Sunday, April 14, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Christinne Muschi
UTICA, N.Y. – Canada reclaimed the women’s world hockey championship from the United States with a 6-5 overtime win in Sunday’s final.
Danielle Serdachny scored a power-play goal at 5:16 of overtime to end the showdown.
The Canadians earned some revenge in Utica, N.Y., for last year’s 6-3 loss in the gold-medal game to the U.S. on home ice in Brampton, Ont.
Canadian captain Marie-Philip Poulin scored her first two goals of the tournament. Emily Clark, Erin Ambrose and Julia Gosling also scored in the win.
Canadian goaltender Ann-Renee Desbiens made 19 saves.
Caroline Harvey, Hilary Knight, Laila Edwards, Megan Keller and Alex Carpenter scored for the U.S. Aerin Frankel stopped 25 shots.
Poulin missed the net on a breakaway and Sarah Fillier also missed a chance early in overtime.
The U.S. took a bench minor for too many players at 3:17. Serdachny scored Canada’s second power-play goal of the tournament with three seconds remaining in the American penalty. She flicked a backhand shot by Frankel off a rebound of an Ambrose shot for the winner.
The hosts beat Canada 1-0 in overtime in a Group A game earlier in the tournament.
The U.S. outshot the visitors 11-3 in Sunday’s second period, but they were deadlocked 3-3 heading into the third.
They were also tied 5-5 with five minutes remaining. Only Canada’s 7-5 win over the U.S. in 2012 was a higher scoring final among the 22 games the two countries have played.
The archrivals needed overtime or a shootout to decide a gold medal for an eighth time in tournament history.
Poulin was penalized for an illegal hit on U.S. forward Britta Curl at 7:14 of the third. Knight backhanded Caroline Harvey’s shot off the backboards under Desbiens’ pad for a power-play goal and a 4-3 lead at 8:56.
But Canada pulled even when Clark’s shot from behind the goal line deflected off Harvey and into the U.S. net at 10:46.
Poulin scored her second of the game at 12:19 for a 5-4 lead. At the side the net, she dug at the puck and shovelled it over Frankel’s pad.
The 33-year-old missed PWHL Montreal’s last three games heading into the international break and also sat out Canada’s pre-tournament win over Finland with an undisclosed injury.
Harvey produced another equalizer for the U.S. at 14:58 of the third in another see-saw battle between the two sides for women’s international hockey supremacy.
Canada led 2-1 by 3:08 of the second when Gosling elected to shoot low between Frankel’s pads during an odd-man rush with Serdachny.
But the U.S. tied it at 10:10 scoring off the rush, and led by 16:32 on Carpenter’s sixth goal of the tournament.
Poulin notched her first of the tournament for a 3-3 tie at 18:58 with a wrist shot far side from the faceoff circle.
Kendall Coyne Schofield fed Carpenter in the slot from the behind the net for the latter to beat Desbiens stick side. Desbiens got a piece of Keller’s shot, but not enough to keep it out of her net.
Canada outshot the U.S. 13-6 after a first period that ended 1-1.
Within seconds of Canada’s Jocelyne Larocque whistled for tripping Taylor Heiser in the neutral zone, Edwards collected the puck along the boards and roofed it on Desbiens at 8:12.
Canada scored first at 6:32. With Poulin providing a screen, Ambrose from the wall beside Canada’s bench lofted a shot that appeared to deflect off a body and change speeds on Frankel.
Finland edged Czechia 3-2 in a shootout for the bronze medal. The 2025 women’s world championship will be held in Ceske Budejovice, Czechia.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 14, 2024.
