HENDERSON, Nev. (AP) — Sarah Nurse scored with less than five minutes to play and Canada beat the United States 3-2 on Thursday night after losing the first three games in the seven-game Rivalry Series.
Moments after missing its chance to capitalize on a power play, Canada grabbed the lead when Nurse fired from a wicked angle on the far end of the goal line to beat goaltender Maddie Rooney.
“Sometimes tricky shots can go in, you put the puck on net, you put the goalie in a bad position, so that’s what happened tonight,” Nurse said. “That’s why we have our goalie coach, he studies these girls that we play against and he does a great job putting packages together."
Jamie Lee Rattray and Blayre Turnbull also scored for Canada, and Kristen Campbell stopped 21 shots. Amanda Kessel and Hilary Knight scored for the Americans and Rooney made 13 saves.
The series wll resume Saturday in Los Angeles.
“I love the way that the players play instinctually in this series,” U.S. coach John Wroblewski said. “As coaches, it feels like we try to give them a blueprint to play with, but it’s not as much of a chess match as you’ll see sometimes (on) the men’s side of things. The women, they play instinctually, they play with a ton of passion, and it’s another tight game that really could have gone either way.”
Kessel opened the scoring when she stretched her stick behind Rattray to knock in Kendall Coyne-Schofield’s pass at the doorstep in the first period.
It turned out to be a goal heard round social media, as brother Phil scored for the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights at nearly the same moment in Chicago, sending shockwaves throughout Twitter.
“I’ve been trying to load it for the last five minutes here and I can’t see it,” Kessel said moments after the game about her brother's goal. “So, I’m wondering if it was nicer than mine."
Rattray tied it for Canada when she stole the puck skated alone on a breakaway and beat Rooney at 6:51 mark of the second. Turnbull put the Canadians ahead with a little more than a minute left in the second.
Knight scored on a breakaway in the third.
