The United States played through penalties early and piled up the goals late Friday in a 6-0 shutout of Czechia in the first match of reigning medalists at the 2024 International Ice Hockey Federation Women’s World Championship.
Despite killing off 10 minutes in penalties in the first 25 minutes of play, including a 43-second five-on-three to start the second period, the US led 1-0 and limited Czechia to six shots through the time. That first goal came one minute after the first penalty expired; Alex Carpenter scored quickly off an offensive zone faceoff with an assist from Kendall Coyne Schofield.
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“You could feel it,” US coach John Wroblewski said. “Every every call that went against us, the crowd was right there with us, and everything that went our way you could tell that they were sort of like that extra wave that kept pushing things forward.”
Carpenter and World Championship newcomer Laila Edwards each added two goals to the total and Taylor Heise scored unassisted.
Goalie Nicole Hensley recorded 19 saves and earned the seventh shutout of her World Championship career. Her teammates put up 48 shots at the other end of the ice.
Carpenter and Edwards scored goals one minute apart late in the second period to give the United States a 3-0 lead. Carpenter scored eight seconds after a US power play expired with assists from Caroline Harvey and Abbey Murphy. The 20-year-old Edwards netted her first World Championship goal 59 seconds later with an assist Britta Curl.
“We beared down,” Edwards said. “We faced some adversity. We didn’t take a step back; we just hunted and battled. We wanted it and proved that. We got the job done.”
Edwards scored again, short-handed with the United States killing another of its seven penalties. Coyne Schofield and Harvey assisted. Harvey had a third assist and Cayla Barnes added he first when Carpenter completed her hat trick midway through the third period to gap the scoring; Heise had scored a shot time after Edwards.
Team USA defeated Czechia for the fourth time in three years and shut the 2022 and 2023 bronze medalist out for the first time. The US won 5-1 and 9-1 at last year’s tournament and beat Czechia 10-1 in its 2022 semifinal.
Team USA plays again Saturday against Finland while Czechia’s next game is Sunday afternoon against Canada.
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