2022-23 Rivalry Series: Canada completes comeback

LAVAL - Canada's national women's hockey team sealed the 2022-23 Rivalry Series with a convincing 5-0 win over Team USA in front of an electric crowd of nearly 6,000 fans at Place Bell on Wednesday night.

Both teams returned to Quebec for the first time since 2017 when they played each other in the province's capital during centralization in preparation for the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang. That game was not part of the Rivalry Series which officially began in 2019.
The sixth game of the current Rivalry Series took place at the Colisée Vidéotron in Trois-Rivieres on Monday evening. Marie-Philip Poulin, Olympian and Canadiens player development consultant, was honored during a pregame ceremony for winning the 2022 Northern Star Award, formerly known as the Lou Marsh Trophy, annually awarded to the athlete of the year in Canada.
In a 5-1 win over the Americans, the Beauceville, QC native reached the 200-point milestone to become only the fifth player in Canadian national women's hockey team history to do so.

Game 7 of the series moved to Place Bell for the ultimate showdown, and the ambiance in the building was absolutely electrifying.

Fans clearly listened to Captain Clutch's call to action to support her squad earlier this week.

The Habs were well-represented at Place Bell for the occasion, as Paul Byron brought along a crew of young Team Canada fans including his son Brysen and daughter Ellie.

Byron's young brood was certainly excited to watch Poulin in action as both Ellie and Brysen met her at the Canadiens home opener on October 12.

Multiple members of the hockey operations department were also in the house, including Canadiens assistant general manager John Sedgwick and Adam Douglas, the team's director of sports science, among others.
The Canadians' scoring machine got to work in the first period with a goal from defender Ella Shelton.
In the second stanza, crowd favorite Poulin doubled her sides' lead, scoring her 98th tally with the senior national team. The third goal, coming off the stick of forward Blayre Turnbull, led the Americans to pull Nicole Hensley from net and replace her with Maddie Rooney, but that didn't make much of a difference as Turnbull went on to score another. Teammate Victoria Bach notched the red and white's fifth and final goal.
The Americans brought the heat in the third, but couldn't solve goaltender Ann-Renée Desbiens, who maintained the shutout with 25 saves.

Speaking of the netminder, Desbiens was joined by her counterpart Emerance Maschmeyer for a round of Rivalry Series trivia hosted by fellow teammate Laura Stacey - who registered three assists in the decisive game - last week.

Team Canada currently has the edge over Team USA in Rivalry Series action since 2019 with 11 wins over the Americans' 10.
Photo credit: Arianne Bergeron/Hockey Canada Images