For all the focus on the US’ young and retooled roster, it was who else but Hilary Knight, the team’s most experienced and accomplished star, who on Sunday played a pivotal role in securing her nation’s 10th IIHF World Women’s Championship gold medal — their first in four years.
Thirty-three-year-old Knight scored three times, including the go-ahead goal with 3 minutes, 10 seconds left in regulation, in a 6-3 win over Canada, and on their cross-border rival’s home soil in suburban Toronto.
Apologizing for her voice being hoarse from a celebration that featured her team singing a rousing rendition of The Star-Spangled Banner, Knight broke into a smile and said: “Yeah, it’s been a while.”
Photo: AP
The US overcame three one-goal deficits and the sting of losing the past three gold-medal meetings against Canada — the past two world championships and the Beijing Winter Olympics — to reclaim gold for the first time since a 2-1 shootout win over Finland in 2019.
“It’s hard to beat Canada. It’s hard to beat Canada in Canada, right? So we definitely felt like an underdog,” Knight said. “People are always rooting against us, but somehow we persevere and it feels sweeter that way.”
Caroline Harvey had a goal and assist, and Abbey Murphy and Cayla Barnes, with an empty-net goal, also scored. The US scored four unanswered goals in the third period. Aerin Frankel stopped 24 shots.
With a US roster featuring five players making their tournament debuts, Knight scored twice in a span of 27 seconds to capitalize on a two-player advantage with the game tied at 3-3.
With Brianne Jenner off for tripping and Claire Thompson penalized 1 minute, 11 seconds later for delay of game, Knight snapped in a shot from the mid-slot to beat Ann-Renee Desbiens high on the glove side.
Knight made it 5-3 by deflecting in Harvey’s shot from the left point.
As for her first goal, Knight tied the score at 2-2 by converting a two-on-one break with Amanda Kessel 8 minutes, 30 seconds into the second period.
Jenner scored twice and added an assist, and Marie-Philip Poulin had a goal and assist for Canada, which settled for its ninth silver medal, to go along with 12 golds and one bronze.
Desbiens stopped 16 shots in losing her first tournament game in 17 career starts.
“I think we’re in a little bit of disbelief now. Not that we don’t know the opponent is a great hockey team, but we believe so fully in our group,” Jenner said.
“I think there’s a lot of moments in that game. You know, I think it’d be easy to put blame elsewhere, but I think we have to look at ourselves,” she added. “I mean we’ve got to figure out a way to hold those leads.”
The US has not defeated Canada with a gold medal on the line since the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea. Otherwise, Canada and the US have met in the world tournament’s 21 other gold-medal games.
“They definitely had our number for a few years, so this one feels a little extra special,” Kessel said. “I’ve been on the other side of it where you’re just winning, winning, winning, and you kind of have their number and it’s a confidence thing. So I think this was huge for us.”
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