Canada falls to United States 3-2 in overtime in women’s hockey Rivalry Series

KINGSTON, Ont. – The Canadian women’s hockey team squandered a two-goal lead in the third period and the United States came back to win 3-2 in overtime in the Rivalry Series on Sunday.

American Hilary Knight scored the winner 54 seconds into overtime after netting the third-period equalizer.

Hayley Scamurra began the rally for the U.S. with a goal early in the third period.

Marie-Philip Poulin, on the power play, and Sarah Fillier scored for the Canadians in the second period.

U.S. goaltender Nicole Hensley made 18 saves. Canada’s Emerance Maschmeyer stopped 21 pucks in defeat.

The teams are using the series both as preparation for February’s Winter Olympics and for evaluation to determine their 23-player rosters for Beijing.

Game 4 of the series goes Tuesday in Ottawa. The Rivalry Series then shifts to the U.S. with games Dec. 15 and Dec. 17 in St. Louis and Dec. 20 in St. Paul, Minn.

Canada still has a 2-1 edge in the series after winning the first two games last month in the U.S. – 3-2 in Hartford, Conn., and 3-1 in Allentown, Penn.

On Sunday Scamurra buried a puck 2:44 into the third period to cut Canada’s lead to one, and Knight tied the game 1:22 later on a feed from Kendall Coyne Schofield.

Hensley did her part to keep the Americans in the game, making a flurry of saves in the dying minutes of the third to send it to overtime.

Canada led 1-0 through Poulin’s power-play marker 3:11 into the second with Scamurra in the box for cross-checking.

Fillier doubled the lead at the five-minute mark from Poulin and Micah Zandee-Hart. Fillier of Georgetown, Ont., leads Canada in scoring with four goals.

“I thought we showed a great degree of resilience,” said U.S. coach Joel Johnson. “I don’t think we changed our style of play between the first, second and third and it was impressive that we stayed after it.

“Usually, you start to panic a little bit and try to play out of character and I was excited to see us continue to play the same way and find a way to put the puck in the net.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2021.