Harvard Women Help Beat Canada on Ice

In a rematch of February’s Olympic gold-medal game in women’s hockey, the U.S. select team beat Canada, 3-2, in a shootout in the Four Nations Cup opener for both squads last night in Newfoundland.

Though the host Canadians came back to tie the game twice in regulation, American goalie Jessie Vetter stopped all three shots in the shootout to hand her team the win. Wisconsin’s Hilary Knight beat Shannon Szabados for the only goal of the shootout.

Team USA—which is led by Harvard coach Katey Stone and features Crimson skaters Julie Chu ’06-’07, Caitlin Cahow ’07-’08, and sophomore Josephine Pucci—jumped out to a quick lead 11 seconds into the game.

Jocelyne Lamoreux, currently playing for North Dakota, played the puck off the endboards, allowing Jenny Potter the chance to slam it into the open net. Szabados was out of the net intending to play the puck and couldn’t come back to make the save.

Canada tied it up early in the second when Olympic hero Marie-Philip Poulin deflected a shot past Vetter. Poulin is currently a freshman at Boston University.

Cahow got her name on the scoresheet on the U.S.’s second goal, earning an assist by putting a shot on net that was put over the goal line by Meghan Duggan midway through the second.

Canadian Meaghan Mikkelson knotted the score at two just over two minutes later, but Vetter and the defense held strong for the rest of the game, establishing the Americans as the favorites in the four-team tournament. Sweden and Finland are the other competitors at the annual event, which runs through Saturday.

The U.S. returns to action tomorrow evening against Finland.