CANADA’S NATIONAL WOMEN’S TEAM CLAIMS SILVER AT 4 NATIONS CUP

Silver is Canada’s eighth at annual international tournament

 Canada’s National Women’s Team claimed its eighth silver medal at the 4 Nations Cup after falling 5-1 to the United States on Sunday afternoon.

On the power-play midway through the third, Meghan Agosta (Ruthven, Ont.) put Canada within a goal off passes from Brigette Lacquette (Mallard, Man./Calgary, CWHL) and Haley Irwin (Thunder Bay, Ont./Calgary, CWHL).

With the score 2-1 in favour of the United States and under five minutes to play, the Americans capitalized on three late Canadian penalties to beat Geneviève Lacasse (Kingston, Ont./Calgary, CWHL), who turned away 22 of 27 shots.

“When we lose, it’s always frustrating; it would be easy to be disconnected, but we have to stay together and we will keep working towards our goal one day at a time,” said captain Marie-Philip Poulin (Beauceville, Que./Montreal, CWHL). “That’s not the result we wanted, but we will go back to Calgary and work hard as a team. It’s a long year and we will keeping working to get better so we can get there.”

Canada finished its lone international tournament in advance of the 2018 Olympic Winter Games with a 2-2 record after defeating Sweden and Finland in the preliminary round.

“I thought we definitely had a good first period but we had numerous chances that we didn’t capitalize on,” said head coach Laura Schuler (Scarborough, Ont.). “Unfortunately, it was really the last five minutes of the third where we weren’t disciplined that ended up costing us; the final score wasn’t indicative of how the game was played.”

Since the debut of the 4 Nations Cup in 1996, Canada’s National Women’s Team has won the gold medal a total of 14 times (1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014), and earned silver on eight occasions (1997, 2003, 2008, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017).