Hilary Knight scored twice including the opening and insurance goals to lead the United States to a 5-2 win over Canada in the gold medal game of the Four Nations Cup Saturday night at SaskTel Centre.
Knight scored on her own rebound on a wrap around just 1:28 into the game and tipped in a point shot from Kacey Bellamy at 12:01 of the second period to give the U-S a 4-1 lead. Knight’s goal came just 24-seconds after Brianna Decker scored on a 2-on-1 break. It was the Americans second odd-man rush goal of the night.
Laura Fortino scored Canada’s first goal on a shot from the point that deflected in off an American defender to tie the game early in the first period. Jamie Bourbonais’ power-play shot from the point midway through the third period rounded out the Canadian scoring.
Canada’s starting goaltender Shannon Szabodos was pulled 41-seconds into the third period after Kendall Coyne Schofield scored on a rebound to give the U-S a 5-1 lead.
Canada was 1-4 on the power play, the U-S 1-5. The shots on goal were even at 25 each.