Brianna Decker celebrates her second-period goal against Canada with teammates at the 2017 IIHF Women's World Championships at USA Hockey Arena on March 31, 2017 in Plymouth, Mich.
The time is officially now for the U.S. women’s hockey team.
Team USA played its first game of the season on Sunday ahead of its “The Time is Now Tour” cross-country series of games, also part of the preparation for the Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018, and beat rival Canada, 5-2, in Quebec City.
Brianna Decker scored a pair of goals and Hilary Knight, Annie Pankowski and Alex Carpenter added a tally apiece while goaltender Maddie Rooney faced 25 shots in the victory.
Knight gave the U.S. the lead on a power play at 9:05 of the first period and, after successfully killing off a tripping penalty called on Meghan Duggan at 11:30, Decker scored her first of the game at 16:00.
Meghan Agosta cut the lead to 2-1, scoring for Canada before the first period was over, but the U.S. capitalized almost immediately in the second with a goal from Pankowski at 1:12. Carpenter made it 4-1 at the halfway point of the game and Decker scored her second at 16:23 to give Team USA a 5-1 lead heading into the third period.
A total of eight different players registered points for Team USA.
The U.S. won’t have to wait long to once again face their rivals from the north. The team kicks off The Time is Now Tour on Wednesday against Canada in Boston before taking on Finland (Nov. 7), Canada (Nov. 8) and Sweden (Nov. 10) as part of the Four Nations Cup in Wesley Chapel, Florida.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
