Four Nations Cup: Canadian women blanked by U.S.

A solid outing by goaltender Emerance Maschmeyer was undone by Canada's inability to finish Thursday at the Four Nations Cup.

The United States blanked the Canadian women's hockey team 3-0. Canada (1-1) concludes the preliminary round of the annual international women's tournament Saturday against host Sweden (0-2).

The U.S. (2-0) finishes against Finland (1-1). The Finns downed the Swedes 3-1 in Thursday's other game. The top two teams in the preliminary round advance to Sunday's championship game.

Maschmeyer made 27 saves in her first career start against the U.S. with the national women's team. It was the second game in as many nights for the 21-year-old from Bruderheim, Alta., after posting a 17-save shutout against Finland to open the tournament.

Maschmeyer and Erica Howe of Orleans, Ont., had fewer than five career starts for the national team between them when they were named to the Four Nations roster.

"It's a great feeling putting on this jersey every single time, especially against the U.S., a rival team," Maschmeyer said. "I felt like I was seeing the puck really well.

"My defencemen helped clear out the front of the net for me and prevented second and third chances."

Veteran U.S. goaltender Jessie Vetter held off the Canadians with 31 saves. Monique Lamoureux scored even-strength and Megan Bozek had a power-play goal in the second period. Kendall Coyne sealed the win with an empty-netter.

U.S. capitalized on chances

"I thought we had some quality scoring chances where we just kind of skimmed the net," Canadian head coach Laura Schuler said.

"I thought the game was a pretty even game as far as shots and scoring chances for and against, but they ended up capitalizing on two of those chances and we didn't."

Canada is the defending Four Nations champion having beaten the U.S. 3-2 in a shootout in last year's final. But the Americans are the reigning world champions.

The U.S. boasts the best power play in women's international hockey and converted one of their four chances Thursday. They had a pair of power-play opportunities in the first 10 minutes of the game, so Maschmeyer was tested early.

"The U.S. does have a very good power play and whenever you give them three or four scoring chances they're going to put one in on you just because they are that dangerous," Schuler said.

"I like the structure of our penalty kill and what we were giving the U.S. was stuff that if they did get anything, it was stuff we could handle. I was proud of (Maschmeyer) and how she played it and obviously some big saves and big bump-up moments for our team."