The U.S. women’s hockey team suffered another heartbreaking loss Wednesday night in its first game against Canada since the Sochi Olympic final.
The Americans led 2-1 with five minutes left, but Canada scored twice in a 46-second span to snatch a 3-2 victory at the Four Nations Cup in Kamloops, British Columbia.
It conjured memories of Sochi, where Canada came from behind to force overtime and won in the extra session for its fourth straight gold, also by a 3-2 score.
The teams on the ice Wednesday were a mix of Olympians and non-Olympians and missing the biggest stars from Sochi. The U.S. coach is also new, 14-year NHL veteran Ken Klee.
“We’re not really thinking back to the past,” two-time U.S. Olympian Monique Lamoureux said. “The positive thing we can take out of it is the mistakes we made are all fixable things.”
Haley Irwin and Rebecca Johnston scored the game-tying and game-winning goals on U.S. goalie Alex Rigsby. Irwin and Johnston were on the last two Canadian Olympic teams that beat the U.S. in gold-medal games. Rigsby is not an Olympian.
“We seem to always be behind in the third period, but we have a confidence, we’re eager,” Johnston said, according to PostMedia News in Canada. “We just won’t stop until the very last second.”
The U.S. next plays Sweden on Friday. It could play Canada again in the final Saturday.
