The 2023 IIHF Women’s World Championship took place April 5-16 in Brampton, Ontario at the CAA Centre. There were plenty of games to look forward to such as the rivalry between the USA and Canada.
Both the USA and Canada won their first three games with Canada not having a goal scored on them until their third game.
On April 10, the rivalry took to the ice for the first time in this tournament. It was an extremely close game that took the whole time plus some extra minutes. With 3.4 seconds left in the third period, the USA scored to tie up the game and extend it. Canada ended up winning in a shootout with a score of 4-3. This revved up the engine for the USA.
Both the USA and Canada won the rest of their games and then it was time to heat up the rivalry again as they competed in the finals of this tournament.
This was a great back-and-forth game in the first and second periods until the USA took off in the third. Team USA was down 3-2 entering the final frame but they didn’t give up and ended up getting four goals in the third to win the gold medal.
Captain of Team USA, Hillary Knight, got a hat trick in the final game and also won Team USA’s Player of the Game. She became the first player in Women’s Worlds history to reach 100 points as she ended with 101 points.
Goalie of Team USA, Aerin Frankel, made lots of key stops for the team and finished out the night with 24 saves.
“I’m so proud of our group and happy for the entire team and staff,” said the head coach of Team USA, John Wroblewski.
Other notable things for Team USA were that defender Caroline Harvey earned the directorate award as the tournament's best defender, and coach Wroblewski became the first head coach in USA Hockey history to lead both men’s and women’s national teams to gold medals.
Finland’s forward, Nieminen Petra, was great during this tournament as she had 13 points scoring six goals with seven assists in seven games.
Another big moment of this tournament was when Czechia won the bronze medal with a 3-2 win over Switzerland.
This was quite an interesting tournament and next year it will be held in Utica, New York from April 4 through the 14.
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