Make it eight straight tournament final victories over Canada for the U.S. women’s hockey team. How’s that for a rivalry?
Hilary Knight scored twice as the Americans won 5-2 for their fourth straight Four Nations Cup title on Saturday night in Saskatchewan. The U.S. also captured the last three world championships and PyeongChang Olympic titles. The last Canadian final victory was at the 2014 Four Nations Cup.
The next major tournament is the world championship in Finland in April.
Melissa Samoskevich, Brianna Decker and Kendall Coyne Schofield also scored, leading Canada to pull three-time Olympic goalie Shannon Szabados 41 seconds into the third period.
Alex Rigsby, the U.S.’ No. 3 goalie in PyeongChang, played the whole game, stopping 23 of 25 shots. Rigsby was also in net for a 2-1 win over Canada in preliminary play Wednesday.
The U.S. made major changes since the Olympics, including a new head coach (Bob Corkum replacing Robb Stauber) and program director Reagan Carey stepping down after eight years at the helm.
The Four Nations Cup roster included all of the stars from the Olympics save captain Meghan Duggan, who sat out with an injury but plans to return to the national team later in this Olympic cycle, and twins Jocelyne Lamoureux-Davidson and Monique Lamoureux-Morando, who are pregnant.
The Four Nations Cup is an annual tournament featuring the U.S., Canada, Finland and Sweden.
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