Canada Beats U.S. 4-3 in 9th Round of SO at Women's Worlds

BRAMPTON (Ontario) -- Jamie Lee Rattray was the winner of the ninth round shootout. Canada defeated the United States 4-3 Monday night in a final preliminary round match at the women’s world hockey championship.

After finishing at 1-2 in Group A, the teams will now turn their attention towards Thursday's quarterfinals.

Sarah Fillier scored a goal with an assist, while Marie-Philip Poulin was able to score in regulation for Canada. Ann-Renee Desbiens was the goalie and earned the win.

Hannah Bilka scored a goal and assisted Hilary Knight. Amanda Kessel and Hilary Knight also scored for the Americans. Aerin Frankel, the goaltender, took the loss.

After Desbiens and Frankel had gone toe-to–toe through eight rounds, Rattray was able to bury the winner with a quick deke before being mobbed in the end by their teammates.

Canada was leading 3-1, with 2:27 remaining in regulation. Stacey's goal into an empty net gave Canada the lead.

The U.S. was not done.

Knight scored 39 seconds to go on a rebound to reduce the deficit to one. The scoreboard in the arena lost its power during the play. Kessel then added an improbably equalizer with 3.4 seconds to go, shocking the crowd and forcing overtime.

The U.S. stopped Knight from receiving a penalty in the extra time before Desbiens, an American captain, stopped Knight on a break in OT.

Canada broke a 1-all tie with a 5-on-3 power-play three minutes into the second quarter when Poulin hit a one-timer past Frankel following a set up by Erin Ambrose.

Natalie Spooner then tipped a point shot off of the post, with the teams playing 5-on-4. The U.S. took four consecutive penalties in the middle period. The Canadians could not maintain their lead of 2-1 heading into the third.

Canada won a Fillier penalty in the third period and was assessed the second delay-of game infraction. The U.S. saved its rival by allowing a botched line-change to result in an infraction that was too severe for too many players, which set up the wild finale.

After capturing Olympic gold at Beijing's 2022 Games, the Canadians ended the streak of five consecutive world titles held by the Americans at Calgary's pandemic-delayed event in 2021.

Canada won the worlds in Denmark in September for its third consecutive win.

The United States entered the tournament with a 5-1 win against Canada in the six previous rounds, which included a victory in Denmark of 5-2.

Other action saw Finland win 5-0 over Hungary to close out its preliminary round play without being defeated in any of the four remaining games.

Sanni Ahola saved 15 games in the shutout. Nelli Laitinen and Jenni Hiirikoski scored. Emilia Vesa, Jenniina Nylund and Ronja Savolainen also scored. Nylund, Vesa, and Savolainen are tied in scoring at four goals each with teammate Viivi Vainikka (Sweden's Lina Langblom).

Aniko Nemeth stopped 27 out of 31 shots. Zsuzsa Revesz allowed Hungary to score a goal on five relief shots.

Thursday will be the quarterfinals.

Hungary will play Germany on Tuesday in Group B to complete the play and earn a quarterfinal spot. Hungary is fourth, just behind Sweden, who plays France on Tuesday.

All five teams from Group A make it to the quarterfinals. The top three teams from Group B will advance.

Japan edged Switzerland 4-3 in a matchup between teams looking for their first wins.

Lara Stalder won the match with 9:06 left in regulation for Swiss. Alina Muller, Nicole Vallario, Lara Christen also scored for Switzerland. The Swiss were 2-0 down early and 3-2 behind entering the third period. Andrea Braendli saved 19 shots in the win.

Japan's Remi Koyama and Yoshino Endomoto scored for Japan. Riko Kawaguchi stopped 23 out of 27 shots.