Canada dealt the U.S. Women’s National Team its worst loss since the 2002 Four Nations Cup by a 6-0 margin on Saturday afternoon before a boisterous Saskatchewan crowd of over 5,000. The win completed a Canadian sweep of two games this week in the province.
Canada opened the scoring just under two minutes into the first when Vicky Sunohara (Northeastern ’89) slipped one past USA starting goalie, Chanda Gunn (Northeastern ’04).
Six minutes later Canada increased its lead when Dartmouth senior Katie Weatherston scored from the low slot after a nifty pass from Gina Kingsbury (St. Lawrence ’04).
Canada went up 3-0 when veteran forward Danielle Goyette scored her 100th career international goal on a pass from captain Cassie Campbell parked behind the net.
Charline Labonte continued to stand strong in net for Canada and deny the USA any quality chances.
Dartmouth senior Cherie Piper added a fourth goal on a power play for Canada one minute in to the second period. Meghan Agosta scored Canada’s fifth goal when she fired a shot over USA’s replacement goalie Pam Dreyer’s shoulder 1:25 into the third period to put Canada ahead 5-0.
Jayne Hefford scored Canada’s final goal with 25 seconds remaining to give Canada a 6-0 victory. This is the fourth consecutive win for Canada over the USA since the Women’s World Championships.
Charline Labonte made 23 saves in the Canadian victory, earning her fifth career shut-out. Danielle Goyette took home the player of the game honours for Canada, and Chanda Gunn was named player of the game for the USA. Dreyer (Brown ’04) and Gunn each let up three goals.
Canada will face the USA five more times prior to the 2006 Winter Olympics. The next time these two teams meet will be in a pre-Olympic Tournament in Turin, Italy on November 10.
