Team USA made a strong start to its Olympic title defence with a 5-2 victory over third seed Finland. Two goals from captain Kendall Coyne-Schofield and two more from Alex Carpenter led the way for the Americans, with Amanda Kessel also on the scoresheet. For Finland, Olympic debutant Anni Keisala performed bravely in goal, stopping 47 of the 52 shots she faced. Despite her best efforts, after a competitive opening 10 minutes the 2018 bronze medallist was overpowered.
However, Team USA’s impressive win came at a cost with Brianna Decker helped from the ice midway through the first period after injuring her left leg.
Decker, 30, came to Beijing for her third Games, having previously won silver in Sochi and gold in PyeongChang. But her 2022 campaign is in danger of coming to a premature end after she tangled with Finland’s Ronja Savolainen. There was no malice in the incident, but Decker’s awkward fall left her sprawled in pain for a time before she was able to sit up and leave the ice on a trolley.
Captain Coyne-Schofield said: “I think the response you saw from our group shows what she means to this team. We don’t know her status, we hope she’s OK, but it was definitely difficult to see.
“I just told her ‘We got this.’ Whatever happens she’s a big part of this group. There’s no replacing Brianna Decker, but everyone did what they had to do and that’s why we were successful tonight.”
Amanda Kessel opened the scoring soon after play resumed, with the delay for Decker’s treatment seeming to distract Finland more than the Americans. The 30-year-old forward was given far too much space to the left of the Finnish net and she drove along the goal line before going five-hole on Keisala.
The 24-year-old goalie was making her Olympic debut after Finland opted to go without long-serving netminder Noora Raty. The decision has provoked fierce debate back home, but Keisala coped well in difficult circumstances as a powerful U.S. offence began to tighten the screws.
Despite her frequent saves, though, Keisala could do nothing to stop the first power play of the game. Alex Carpenter got on the end of a fine feed from Kelly Pannek – who took Decker’s place on the American PP – and lasered an inch-perfect wrister to the short side, doubling the lead. Carpenter, like Megan Bozek, is returning to the Olympic team after she was cut from PyeongChang. She and Bozek also have extensive experience of playing in China after featuring for the KRS Vanke Rays, a Shenzhen-based franchise in Russia’s Women’s Hockey League.
Carpenter was impressed with how Pannek slotted into a new role, and how the team gelled quickly after relatively little game time this season.
“We put Kelly there and she made no mistake putting it right on my tape,” the goalscorer said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve played an international game, so to go out there and put up the numbers we did was a good start for us.”
For Finnish defender Minnamari Tuominen, the Decker incident was less of an issue than the greater fluency of the American players.
“After an even start to the game, I think maybe the USA started skating a little more than we did – and it shows on the scoreboard,” she said. “Obviously there’s room for improvement, but I thought we fought hard and tried to execute the things we’ve been talking about.”
The middle frame was one-way traffic. Team USA dominated play from start to finish, outshooting the opposition 19-2 and keeping a beleaguered Finnish defence pegged into its own end. It was testament to the hard work of Jenni Hiirokoski and her D-core colleagues that such control only produced two more goals. They came 64 seconds apart, both from Coyne-Schofield, to take the game away.
The first was a devastating wrist shot that flashed through the legs of Nelli Laitinen with Keisala unsighted. Then yet another U.S. face-off win enabled Savannah Harmon to get quick point shot away, knowing that Coyne-Schofield was waiting in front of the net to apply a deft redirect.
Subsequently, Finland’s struggles on the draw ensured that the play remained in front of Keisala’s net. The young goalie performed strongly to keep the score down as the defending champion threatened to run riot in the middle frame.
In the third period, Finland got on the scoreboard at last. Susanna Tapani unleashed a great shot from the top of the circle to convert her team’s second power play of the night and make it 1-4. However, there was little prospect of a fightback and Carpenter got her second of the game when she wrapped up a well-worked combination.
Then came slight confusion at the end. With 2:20 on the clock, Tapani fired in a shot that clipped the inside of the post and bounced out of the net via the camera in the back of the net. The on-ice verdict was no goal, but after the final hooter a video review awarded Finland a second goal. As a result, the teams had to come back to the ice to replay the final two minutes. The Finns, eager to grab a further consolation goal, went six-on-five and gave Maddie Rooney a busier finale at the second time of asking, but could make no further inroads into the 5-2 scoreline.
And, despite the injury to Decker, that result left head coach Joel Johnson happy with how his team began its title defence.
“We played a really good game,” he said. “I thought particularly in the second period, we really established ourselves. It’s always hard the first game of a tournament, but in the Olympics with all the weirdness going on, I was really impressed with our players and I give them a ton of credit.
“Decks is one of our captains and she’s one of the best centres in the world of women’s hockey, so we’re obviously very concerned and we should know more in the coming days, but I was really impressed with the adjustments our lineup made and I don’t think we missed a beat, and that’s just a credit to the depth that we have.”
Source: iihf.com