Canada Defeats USA to Win Gold at Women's Hockey World Championship

Canada has had Team USA's number all year in women's hockey, and that didn't change in Sunday's IIHF Women's World Championship final.

Backed by a tremendous performance in goal by Ann-Renee Desbiens and a two-goal game by Brianne Jenner, Canada defeated the United States 2-1 to capture the gold medal.

Jenner, who was named MVP of the Winter Olympics, opened the scoring midway through the second period with a shot that slipped past American goaltender Nicole Hensley, who appeared a bit off balance in the crease.

Jenner notched her second of the night, on the power play, with a shot that beat Hensley on the far side to give Canada a 2-0 lead.

The Americans struck back just before the end of the second period when Amanda Kessel set up Abby Roque for a cross-crease goal, cutting Canada's lead in half and giving the United States some hope entering the third period.

With a secondary assist on Roque's goal, Kendall Coyne Schofield became Team USA's all-time assists leader at women's worlds, breaking the record Brianna Decker set at last year's tournament.

However, it was too little, too late as Desbiens was simply too tough for the Americans to beat in the Canadian crease. She stopped 20 of 21 shots in a stellar outing.

This marks the third time the Canadian women's hockey team has taken home a gold medal over the last year. It won the 2021 world championship with a 3-2 overtime victory over the United States and also defeated the Americans 3-2 in the gold-medal game in February's Beijing Olympics.

The United States entered Sunday's final having not lost a game in this year's world championship, including a 5-2 win over Canada in the preliminary round.

The two teams will meet again in the 2022-23 rivalry series on Sunday, Nov. 20, at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. Additional games in the series have yet to be announced.