I didn’t want to go too long without mentioning that the U.S. women’s ice hockey team picked up its 10th IIHF World Championship gold medal with a 6-3 win over Canada.
And it wasn’t just the fact that the U.S. was able to win in front of a pro-Canadian crowd in Brampton, Ontario, it was that the States were able to turn a 3-3 tie into the final score in a shade over four minutes.
It all started with what became a disastrous 5-on-3 deficit for Canada, as Hilary Knight scored a pair of quick goals while Brianne Jenner was in the box for tripping and teammate Claire Thompson was off the ice for delay of game.
The two goals gave Knight, one of the best individual skaters the United States has ever produced, a total of 101 international goals.
It then was up to Cayla Barnes to find an empty net with under two minutes to play. The American fusillade took just 72 seconds.
The thing with this U.S. team is that it is pretty much a new squad, from the coach on down. A number of new skaters populated the lineup during this tournament, and head coach John Wroblewski, who was able to give a new mix of players a chance at gold at the highest level. He also took a major risk by dropping experienced goalies Maddie Rooney and Alex Cavallini in favor of Aerin Frankel, who had a grand total of 20 minutes’ worth of IIHF World Championship experience coming into the 2023 tournament.
