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Canada’s Women’s Olympic
centralized team defeated Team USA 3-1 on Thursday
night at the United Center in Chicago, IL to split
a two game series with USA.
USA opened the scoring
with goal by forward Sarah Parsons as she fired
a shot through Canadian goaltender Charline Labonté’s
legs from the right hash marks just 2:56 into
the first.
Canada responded as two
rookies connected when Meghan Agosta (Ruthven,
ON) sent a perfect pass to the slot on to the
tape of Katie Weatherston (Thunder Bay, ON) who
redirected the puck past USA goaltender Pam Dreyer
to tie things at 1-1 after one period.
With a scoreless second
period, Canada emerged in the third period when
Gillian Apps (Unionville, ON) scored to secure
the victory for Canada.
The game winning goal
came at 3:40 from Canada’s Apps as she received
a perfect pass from Hayley Wickenheiser (Shaunavon,
SK) on a two on zero break to score the winner.
Kelly Béchard (Sedley, SK) added an empty
net goal to make the final 3-1 for Canada.
Charline Labonte (Boisbriand,
QC) made 27 saves in net for Canada while her
counterpart Pam Dreyer made 29 saves for the USA.
Canada now has a 7-1 record
over the USA this season, and the two teams will
face off two more times prior to the 2006 Winter
Olympic Games, on December 30th in St. Paul, MN
at the Xcel Energy Center, and January 1st in
Winnipeg, MB at the MTS Centre (Tickets available
at www.ticketmaster.ca for the Winnipeg game).
Canada’s players will
leave Chicago and fly to their various hometowns
as they will enjoy three days off before returning
to Calgary to resume training on Tuesday, December
6th.
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NATIONAL
TEAMS NEWS
