|
U22 TEAM PULLS AWAY IN THIRD PERIOD TO SCORE WIN OVER U18S
TORONTO, Ont. – Jennifer Wakefield (Pickering, Ont.), Isabel Menard (Ottawa, Ont.), Natalie Spooner
(Scarborough, Ont.) and Marie-Philip Poulin (Beauceville, Que.) all scored third-period goals as Canada’s
National Women’s Under-22 Team scored four times in 11:14 to turn a 1-1 tie into a 5-1 lead en route to a 5-2
win over Canada’s National Women’s Under-18 Team on Monday night.
 The game officially brought an end to the National Women’s Program selection camps – the U22 and U18
teams were announced Sunday following a week-long camp at the MasterCard Centre.
Despite the edge in experience going to the under-22 team, it was the U18s that struck first when Shelby
Bram (Ste. Anne, Man.) snapped a shot past U22 goaltender Amanda Mazzotta (London, Ont.) on an under-18 power
play late in the first period. Bram’s goal came on the U18s third power play in the last 10 minutes of the
opening frame.
In the second period it was the under-18 team who paraded to the penalty box, taking three-consecutive
penalties, which eventually led to the tying goal off the stick of Rebecca Johnston (Sudbury, Ont.), who
converted on the man advantage with just 13 seconds to go in the middle 20 minutes, sending the game to the
dressing room tied 1-1 after two periods.
The Johnston goal seemed to spark the under-22 side in the third as Wakefield put it ahead for the first
time at 2-1, lifting a backhand past goaltender Amanda Makela (Thunder Bay, Ont.), and Menard made it 3-1
less than three minutes later, sneaking a loose puck past a sprawling Makela.
A trio of former National Women’s Under-18 Team members combined to put the game out of reach later in the
period, as Jessica Campbell (Melville, Sask.) set up Spooner and Poulin to make it 5-1 before Laura Stacey
(Kleinburg, Ont.) rounded out the scoring for the under-18 team with less than two minutes to go, putting the
only puck past netminder Geneviève Lacasse (Scarborough, Ont.).
The teams will go their own ways on Tuesday, with the U18s heading south to Lake Placid, N.Y. where they
will open a three-game series against the United States on Wednesday, while the U22s will remain in Toronto
and welcome the Americans in a three-game set of their own.
|
