US and Canadian Women’s Hockey Teams Win in Four Nations Openers
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November 10, 2011 TheFreshOutlook  |
Women’s Four Nations Hockey is underway in Sweden, with favourites United States and Canada getting off to impressive winning starts.
The women’s US national ice hockey team got their four nations bid off to a convincing start with an 8-0 win over hosts Sweden.
The countries have faced each other 10 times in the competition, with the Americans coming prevailing on each occasion. Sweden has only ever beaten the United States once in all their international matchups, but that was an important win in the semi-finals of the 2006 Winter Olympic Games.
The game followed the form book with the current world champions dominating the Swedes. After a slow start, the US got on the score sheet early into the second period with a Monique Lamoureux-Kolls unassisted goal. The second came through Kelli Stack before the floodgates opened as the Americans added three goals in just over three minutes to make it 5-0 at the second intermission. There was not let-up in the third period as the Americans added three more to finish off their 8-0 drubbing.
2010 Vancouver Olympic Champions, Canada beat Finland 5-0 in their Four Nations opener in Wednesday’s other fixture. Canada have played against Finland 54 times and won 53, so it was no surprise when Jennifer Wakefield popped up after 46 seconds to give the Canadians an early lead. Canada added two more in the first through Vicki Bendus and Jesse Scanzano; before Meghan Agosta and Courtney Birchard added insurance goals in the second. Canada eased up in the final period, possibly with as eye on their Thursday encounter with the Americans.
The Four Nations Cup is an annual competition between Canada, Finland, Sweden and the US. The tournament has been dominated by Canada since it began in 1996, with the Canadians winning 12 out of 15 cups. The United States have won the remaining three cups, with Finland the only other team to qualify to play in the title game.
The second round of group matches will be played on Thursday night, with the final and third place games taking place on Saturday.
By Matthew Giles
[Image courtesy of Phwayne]