Women’s Worlds: Hilary Knight’s hat trick leads USA to gold

Hilary Knight scored three goals, including the game-winner and insurance marker late in the third period to lead Team USA to a 6-3 win against Canada in the gold medal game of the 2023 IIHF World Championships on Sunday night in Brampton.

Knight was playing her first tournament as team captain with regular captain Kendall Coyne Schofield expecting her first child. In what was a vintage performance for the 33-year-old, she put up her 100th World Championship point on the game-winning goal, and finished with exactly 21:21 of ice time. The ice time not only doubling her jersey number, but was also the most of any forward in the game.

Canada got off to a good start when the United States took two quick penalties leading to a five-on-three. They didn’t waste much time as Erin Ambrose teed up Marie-Philip Poulin for a one-timer from the right circle to make it 1-0.

Before the end of the first period, Abbey Murphy got behind the Canadian defence on a two-on-one, she toe-dragged around the defender and fired a shot past Ann-Renée Desbiens to tie the game at 1-1.

The teams traded goals in the second period. Brianne Jenner scored to give Canada a 2-1 lead when she fired a shot from the top of the zone and beat Frankel, who had lost her stick earlier in the play.

Knight got the game tied again, finishing a two-on-one on a feed from Amanda Kessel. The tied game didn’t last long as just 1:09 after Knight’s goal, Jenner scored her second of the game tipping a point shot past the American goaltender to give Canada a 3-2 lead entering the third period.

Caroline Harvey, who is playing in her third World Championship at only 20 years old, walked the blueline and fired a long shot past Desbiens to make it a tied game again early in the third.

Similar to the United States in the first period, late in the game Canada got into penalty trouble of their own. Jenner took a tripping penalty and that was quickly followed up by a Claire Thompson delay of game penalty for clearing the puck over the glass.

On the ensuing five-on-three, Hilary Knight called for the puck at the top of the circles right in the middle of the ice, and fired the shot past Desbiens to give Team USA their first lead of the game with 3:10 remaining.

Just 27 seconds later, still on a power play, Knight scored her third of the game and put the game just about out of reach. It was her eighth goal of the tournament, finishing the tournament as the leading goal scorer.

“Sometimes those games are difficult to process because everything is good, until it isn’t,” said Canadian head coach Troy Ryan. “It just kind of took a turn with the two penalties and the U.S. capitalizing. All I said to the group after the game was I just wanted to spend time with them instead of having something big and magical to say. I’m proud of the group, they’ve been resilient through so many of things the last few years, and they deserve any of the good that comes to them. We put a lot of focus on being really good teammates; I think this group exudes that, and both players and staff will learn from what could have done better to not be in this situation.”

Cayla Barnes added an empty-net goal. Frankel ended the game with 24 saves, while Desbiens had 16 saves for Canada. It was Desbiens’ first senior team loss at a World Championship or Olympic event ending a 22-game winning streak.

“It’s hard to put into words right now,” said Poulin. “This one hurts, for sure, especially on home soil, but this group is very special; we’ll learn from it and move forward, but it’s a tough one to swallow.”

“I’m very proud; this is a really special group,” said Jenner. “I think there’s a bit of disbelief because in our dressing room we believed so much that we were going to find a way to win. It stings right now, but we will learn from it and we’ll be back.”

It was Team USA’s first World Championship gold since the 2019 tournament when they defeated Finland in the gold medal game.

Czechia wins bronze, Finland returns to Group A with a fifth-place finish

Team Czechia defeated Switzerland 3-2 as they went on to win their second-straight bronze medal at the World Championships. Denisa Krizova had two goals and an assist in the win and Blanka Skodova made 11 saves. Andrea Brändli made 30 saves for Switzerland.

Earlier in the day, Finland defeated Sweden 3-1 to finish in fifth-place which means that they will play in Group A at next year’s tournament which will be held in Utica, New York.

Jenni Hiirikoski, the Finnish captain, had a goal and an assist in the win. Sanni Ahola made 18 saves for Finland.

Emma Söderberg made 39 saves in the loss, and was named the tournament’s top goaltender.