PLYMOUTH, Mich. – Thirteen different players recorded a point, including seven players with three points, as the U.S. Women’s National Team topped Germany, 11-0, here tonight in the semifinals of the 2017 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship at USA Hockey Arena.
“It was a strong offensive effort and another complete performance tonight,” said Robb Stauber, head coach of the 2017 U.S. Women’s National Team. “We’re excited for the opportunity to defend our gold medal in front of our fans and look forward to playing in what will be an electric atmosphere tomorrow night.”
With the win, Team USA (4-0-0-0; W-OTW-OTL-L) advances to the gold-medal game tomorrow (April 7) versus Canada. It will be the 18th time the two rivals have met in the event’s title game. Puck drop is slated for 7:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on NHL Network in addition to being streamed live on NHL.com.
The U.S. opened the scoring just 1:06 into the game when Hilary Knight (Sun Valley, Idaho) one-timed a centering pass from Kendall Coyne (Palos Heights, Ill.) past German goaltender Jennifer Harss for her third goal of the tournament.
Kelli Stack (Brooklyn Heights, Ohio) doubled Team USA’s lead 8:47 into the opening stanza with a wrist shot from the left circle that deflected off a German defender’s stick and past Harss.
The U.S. took control of the game with five goals in the first 6:15 of the middle frame. First, Coyne gathered a cross-ice feed by Brianna Decker (Dousman, Wis.) and tucked a shot just below the crossbar for the power-play marker. Just :36 later, Emily Pfalzer (Getzville, N.Y.) one-timed a pass from Amanda Kessel (Madison, Wis.) for her first goal of the tournament before Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson (Grand Forks, N.D.) deked past a German defender and slid a backhand past Harss less than a minute later to make it 5-0.
Coyne buried a loose puck off of a faceoff at 4:22 of the frame, and Megan Keller (Farmington, Mich.) scored from the point less than two minutes later to bring the score to 7-0.
Amanda Pelkey (Montpelier, Vt.), Monique Lamoureux-Morando (Grand Forks, N.D.), Haley Skarupa (Rockville, Md.) and Alex Carpenter (North Reading, Mass.) each scored in the final period to account for the 11-0 final.
Nicole Hensley (Lakewood, Colo.) made eight saves to earn her second shutout victory of the tournament.
NOTES: The U.S. outshot Germany, 50-8, finished 2-for-5 on the power play and 1-for-1 on the penalty kill. For complete game statistics, click here … Kendall Coyne was named the U.S. Player of the Game … Kendall Coyne, Brianna Decker and Nicole Hensley were named the Top Three U.S. Players of the Tournament … The first four U.S. goals of the second period, which were scored 2:20 apart, are the fastest four goals scored in U.S. Women’s National Team history at this event … The U.S. is the defending champion and has played Canada in the gold medal game in all 17 of the previous events, capturing the event’s top prize a total of seven times (2005, 2008, 2009, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016), including six of the last seven tournaments …
